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April 6 (UPI) -- Space is scheduled to get its first luxury hotel thanks to Houston-based aerospace startup Orion Span. The company aims to launch its Aurora Station in late 2021. "By early 2022, we will be hosting tourists, astronauts, space research, and manufacturing on board Aurora Station," the company announced in a blog post.
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A stay on the Aurora Station will run guests an estimated $792,000 a night. Staying just one night, however, likely won't be an option.
"We're not selling a hey-let's-go-to-the-beach equivalent in space," Frank Bunger, Orion Span's founder and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg. "We're selling the experience of being an astronaut. You reckon that there are people who are willing to pay to have that experience."
Twelve-day stays will cost about $9.5 million per person, the company predicts.
The hotel will orbit Earth at a distance of 200 miles, circling the globe once every 90 minutes.
As of now, the company has a business model and basic plans for the construction of its luxury space hotel. But to make their plans a reality, they need to raise money.
According to Bloomberg, the startup has yet to team up with a launch provider. But Orion Span isn't the only commercial space outfit with bold plans.
Another Texas-based company, Axiom Space, plans to put a commercial space station into orbit by 2024. Virgin Galactic wants to take tourists on shorter but slightly more affordable -- at $250,000 a pop -- trips through space. SpaceX has also said it plans to carry a pair of space tourists around the moon.
