Hilton will design apartments for a new space station that will replace the ISS
(ORDO NEWS) — The hotel giant Hilton has signed a contract with Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin to design space for astronauts.
The project will focus on the Starlab space station, a NASA-funded orbital laboratory that will replace the International Space Station in Earth orbit.
Hilton doesn’t have much experience designing astronaut housing, but the company sees that as an advantage.
She plans to explore the concept of hospitality in space and look into a future in which recreation in orbit is possible.
For decades, discoveries in space have positively impacted life on Earth, and now Hilton will have the opportunity to use this unique environment to enhance the guest experience wherever people travel, ” Hilton CEO Christopher Nassett said in a statement.
The company has experience designing “space” hospitality facilities off the planet, in a sense. Back in the 1960s, the hotel chain designed the orbital and lunar hotels, the first of which was featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When will the station be launched into space?
If all goes well, Voyager and its operating company Nanoracks hope to launch the first Starlab space station as early as 2027, with the ultimate goal of linking several Starlab modules together, each serving a different purpose.
In 2021, NASA awarded Nanoracks $160 million, the largest amount under the agency’s Commercial Destinations for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) program.
Three other companies are also still in the competition, with Blue Origins Jeff Bezos receiving $130 million.
We may be able to live in a Hilton hotel in Earth orbit very soon, but this will not stop the private space industry from using its commercial partnerships to start dreaming about it now.
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