Imagine your next vacation or holiday. You and your significant other or family excited for the trip, packing your clothing and toiletries, giddy about your new adventure. You anticipate checking in to your hotel, being greeted with champagne and chocolates and plopping down on your comfy bed, and looking out at the breathtaking views …
Now imagine this same scenario except that your destination and your hotel are 300 miles up in outer space. Sound far-fetched? Or maybe something out of a science fiction movie – but in fact, it will soon be a reality.
Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) is a space construction corporation that is made up of former NASA employees. They plan on starting construction on the space hotel in 2026, and it is slated to open to the public sometime in 2027 according to CNN Travel.
The space hotel will be called Voyager Station and will have a capacity for 280 guests and 112 crew members. It will feature all the amenities that you would expect from a normal high-class hotel, including restaurants, bars, and a gym. John Blincow a former pilot who runs the OAC did an interview with CNN and elaborated more on the project.
“We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It’s coming. It’s coming fast,” Blincow told CNN in an interview. “We cannot call [Musk’s] SpaceX our partner, but in the future we look forward to working with them,” Blincow said at a recent live, asking the viewers to “hang tight.”
John Blincow
Blincow was referencing Elon Musk the eccentric founder of Space X and Tesla who is betting big on space travel. His team recently launched and landed a spacecraft semi-successfully (it blew up after landing).
Virgin Galactic also has gone all-in on space travel and they plan on shuttling people to space in the near future at an estimated cost of a mere $250,000 per person.
One of the big issues for the space hotel is the lack of gravity in space, so how will you be able to sleep, eat, etc. Apparently, they have a system set up that will make it all work out with no real issues. Being weightless in space will also be part of the fun, playing games and floating around for entertainment.
Would you our fellow Nigerians like to experience this? I am sure some would, it may just take someone like Dangote or Adenuga to sponsor us!
