For an $80,000 deposit, you can be the first in your neighborhood to make a reservation for a 12-day stay at the Aurora, which is expected to launch in 2021 and receive guests the following year.
The space hotel experience will offer you grand views of Earth and the cosmos, as well as a truly immersive outer space experience that was previously only the purview of professional astronauts.
What Will It Cost To Visit the Space Hotel?
Your stay at the space hotel is going to cost you $9.5 million. Be advised that there will also be a three-month training period before you take off. You will, however, receive astronaut certification before your trip.
Orion Span Chief Executive Officer Frank Bunger promises that the package includes a “hero’s welcome” upon your return to Earth.
“This is an immersive experience,” Bunger said in an interview with SILive.com. “We’re selling the ability for regular folks to become an astronaut for 12 days… We want them to get the same jubilation as professional astronauts receive.”
Let’s All Go To Outer Space!
But Orion Span is only the latest group to throw its hat into the new space race; numerous companies have made forays into commercial space travel.
The Guardian reminds us that American businessman Dennis Tito paid $20 million to be the first space tourist back in 2001.
Additionally, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has received a “significant deposit” from a pair of private citizens who the company will send on a trip around the moon later this year.
Obviously, such fees are out of reach of the ordinary citizen. But Bunger notes that commercial air travel in its infancy was a luxury only affordable to the very rich; he hopes that commercial space travel will also become affordable to non-elite citizens in the coming years.
Bizarrely Expensive Vacation Options
As it stands, however, any list of your most expensive vacation options must make space at the top for Aurora Station.
A recent Travel and Leisure list of the most expensive vacation options offers some truly mind-boggling possibilities, including:
- Stay at an isolated villa atop Fiji’s Laucala Island for $44,000 per person per night, and that’s only if the island’s owner approves you;
- Just $80,000 a night gets you a spot at Necker Island, the deluxe and private Virgin Islands getaway enjoyed by Richard Branson and former President Barack Obama;
- The White Desert “Greatest Trip,” a one-day round trip from Cape Town to Antarctica and back, costs $195,000;
- An experience at the five-star Chalet Zermatt Peak skiing getaway in Switzerland, includes a Michelin-starred gourmet chef and two massages per day, starting at $57,000 per week;
- The Flat Earth Suite of Canada’s remote Fogo Island Inn offers a gorgeous experience near the end of the world (for those who prefer more earthbound, but still sci-fi-like travel experiences) for a rumored $3100 per night.
Your stay at the space hotel will sit comfortably atop this list at $792,000 a night, but it’s definitely a bucket list-worthy destination.
Readers, care to share the most expensive or exotic vacation you’ve ever taken? Do you think commercial space travel will be affordable in our lifetimes? Are you already saving up for your visit to the space hotel? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Totally frivolous expense…people need to stick to the personal finance basics, including paying down debt, saving and investing.
Yes but there are billionaires in the world who might have this kind of money to burn. TAnd the rest of us can dream of becoming that rich.