BEAT SPACE PIONEER WINDOWS

Why it has taken so long to design a space hotelĮarthlings have long imagined what it would be like to live in space while tuning into Star Wars, The Martian, Apollo 13, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and other stories on the screen. The customizable modules (the largest being 4,300 square feet), which Orbital Assembly plans to retrofit for more guests, would offer a compact and stylish room with a view, bed, and a desk for the most remote kind of work. “You’ll get views of the entire Earth that can’t be beat,” says Alatorre. Now that the design is complete, the company is working to make the space hotel habitable and expects to begin assembly and testing here on Earth later this year. The space station hotel, known as Pioneer, would also give up to 28 travelers a close look at the Northern Lights from one of five floating two-story modules orbiting between the North and South Pole, just above the latitude of the International Space Station. His company is planning to build what would be the first and the largest privately operated orbiting space hotel. “The four-person crew on the first privately chartered SpaceX flight that returned last September said they could have stayed up in space for weeks just looking out the window watching Earth go by, so we’ll make sure to add plenty of windows,” says Tim Alatorre, chief operating officer and cofounder of Alabama-based Orbital Assembly Corp.

BEAT SPACE PIONEER WINDOWS

Of all the sweeping views in all the dream destinations, this one might be the most universally awe inspiring: If all goes as planned, in 2025, space tourists will be gazing out their hotel windows at Earth.

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