Orbital Technologies to Launch Space Hotel by 2016

Imagine one day getting up in the midst of space and having a nice view of the earth revolving outside the window. Moscow-based Orbital Technologies may soon turn those space dreams into reality by stationing an orbiting hotel in the cosmos. The Russian firm has sky-high hopes that its planned Commercial Space Station can serve as a tourism hub for well-heeled travelers and offer over spill accommodation for the International Space Station and workspace for science projects.

This space hotel would be situated 350 km above the Earth and is expected to welcome its first guests in 2016. The expedition to the space hotel will not be exactly a budget vacation: a five-day stay at the hotel is expected to cost about US $160,000/day. The whole trip, including a two-day transfer to the CSS on the Soyuz space ship will strip your wallet of about US $800,000.

“The main purpose will be space tourism, to house people,” Orbital Technologies Chief Operating Officer Sergei Kostenko says. “It will be designed and built in such a way that will provide the most comfortable conditions possible for the tourist’s space stay.” The scheme isn’t as farfetched as it sounds. Orbital Technologies is a subsidiary of a partly state-owned company, which sent tourists to the International Space Station until last year. Kostenko says the hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and those working for private companies who want to do space research.

As you can make out from the pictures, unlike the space station pods designed by Bigelow Aerospace, which the company insists are not space hotels, these pointy pods are certainly meant for leisure travelers. Visitors can choose vertical or horizontal beds, actual food prepared on Earth and reheated in microwaves, and sealed showers with running water, as opposed to the sponge baths currently employed by ISS residents.