Voyager Space; Hilton announced a new collaboration with American Hotel and Hospitality Company. Together, the companies plan to bring accommodation comfort to Voyager Space’s Commercial Space Station Starlab, which will have a permanent crew of four astronauts.
Hilton and Voyager Space have officially announced that they have joined forces for a collaboration in which Voyager plans to develop and design crew accommodation on the Starlab station, which will be its planned commercial space station.
“For decades, explorations in space have positively impacted life on Earth, and now Hilton will have the opportunity to use this unique environment to enhance the stay experience wherever people travel,” said Chris Nassetta, Hilton President and CEO, in a press release. “This landmark collaboration highlights our deep commitment to radiating the light and warmth of hospitality and providing friendly, reliable accommodation on the ground or in space,” Nassetta continued.
As the International Space Station nears the end of its life, NASA is considering a shift towards customized stations to fill the void, and Starlab is on the list of potential contracts. Voyager Space, Nanoracks, and Lockheed Martin jointly work to bring Starlab to life, while Orbital Reef from Blue Origins, Axiom Station from Axiom Space, and the as-yet-unnamed project from Northrop Grumman are among other space stations in development. Even Vast Space, a startup funded by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb from Southern California, wants to build an artificial low-gravity orbital station.
Despite all these promising projects, building and operating a space station is not easy and may take longer than anticipated. This causes NASA to be concerned about its presence in low Earth orbit as the ISS nears decommissioning in 2030.
In addition to the private sector space stations that want to replace the ISS, Russia and China are also planning to build their own space stations. China’s Tiangong Space Station is currently being built, and its first two modules, Tianhe and Wentian, were successfully launched in April 2022 and July 2022, respectively. In addition, Roscosmos announced Russia’s desire to create a state-owned space station that could begin construction before leaving the ISS after 2024.
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