THEY’RE BUILDING A HOTEL IN SPACE BEGINNING IN 2025
by M. Arbeiter
Once the COVID-19 crisis is properly behind us, the travel industry will no doubt witness a boom. Folks with the means for airfare will surely reconnect with their paused passion for jet-setting. And if you find yourself stricken with wanderlust, you may already be considering your first post-pandemic destination. Paris! London! Westview, New Jersey! Maybe even someplace that wasn’t inspired by the past year of television! Or maybe you’ll go the extra mile (or extra 250 miles, directly upward) and visit the first ever space hotel.

Per a recent report on Space.com (the leading authority on all matters relating to hotels), the Gateway Foundation and Orbital Assembly Corporation are working on the first ever commercial space station. Dubbed the Voyager Station, the extraterrestrial cruise liner will take the form of a giant rotating circle. (The rotation should maintain artificial gravity, the degree of which we might experience on the Moon.) OAS has a team of NASA vets assigned to the project; plans at present state that construction could begin as early as 2025.

The Voyager promises enough hotel rooms to cater to 400 guests, as well as a slew of other accommodations. The Daily Mail lists restaurants, bars, spas, gyms, and movie theaters among the projected features. (We have to imagine they won’t be showing Gravity… or Alien… or 2001: A Space Odyssey… or The Andromeda Strain. Honestly, it really might be best if they just stick to strictly Earth-set films. For the sake of guests’ peace of mind.)

While the main structure will devote its real estate principally to luxury living, exterior compartments will host other functions. Some will house basic necessities for site maintenance, like crew members and supplies; others may allocate space for NASA and the European Space Agency for research purposes; further still could rent out to private users, corporations, or governments.