If for some odd reason you wish to take a break from your RV, we have an idea for you — stay in a hotel room that is literally out of this world! But better start feeding your piggy bank: It will cost you about $50 million to stay.
The hotel, coming in 2024 if all goes right, will be in Space, attached to the International Space Station.
NASA announced on Monday that it has selected Houston-based startup Axiom Space to build the first commercial destination module for the International Space Station. In a blog post, NASA said the project to attach a space hotel to the ISS was an important step to “foster the growth of a robust low-Earth orbit economy.”
NASA Spaceflight reported that Axiom has already signed a $55 million contract with a hopeful guest and intends to separate the modules into its own “Axiom Station” at the end of the ISS’ lifespan.
Axiom was co-founded in 2016 by CEO and former ISS program manager Michael T. Suffredini and has plans to launch its own space station after demonstrating its modules on the ISS.
“There will be Wifi,” Suffredini told the New York Times. “Everybody will be online. They can make phone calls, sleep, look out the window. … The few folks that have gone to orbit as tourists, it wasn’t really a luxurious experience, it was kind of like camping. … Pretty soon we’re going to be flying a butler with every crew.”
“foster the growth of a robust low-Earth orbit economy.”
What in the world is THAT?
It takes a lot of fossil fuel to get into orbit. And it’s very expensive. I once read that if you loaded gravel onto a rocket, blasted into orbit, and the gravel changed to gold, and you returned to earth, the trip would not pay for itself.
All depends on the launcher used. From the Delta IV Heavy : ~$14,600/kg to the Falcon 9 R reusable/recoverable : ~$2,700/kg and you have to pay for the total payload (or share).