The Aurora Space Station was a technology concept for a private commercial
space station in low Earth orbit that was announced on 5 March 2018 by Orion Span, a startup aerospace company in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
funded by Pear Venture and
Berkeley SkyDeck
Berkeley SkyDeck (SkyDeck) is a high-tech entrepreneurship startup accelerator and incubator program at the University of California, Berkeley serving as a joint venture between the Haas School of Business and Berkeley College of Engineering ...
. The concept envisions a capacity of six people: two crew and four tourists.
[
No launch contract has been signed for deployment of the modules nor crewed vehicles,][Startup announces plans for low-cost commercial space station]
Jeff Foust, ''SpaceNews'' 5 April 2018 and its construction has not started,[ but its representatives claimed it would be launched in 2021.] In March 2021 the website announced that they had shut down operations and refunded all deposits.
Overview
Frank Bunger, the founder and CEO of Orion Span, stated that the Aurora Station would offer to space tourist
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
s a 12-day stay for US$9.5 million. He said that the design concept is such that the station would not require extravehicular activities (spacewalks) for assembly and operation. Orion Span plans to design, test and build the station in Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. The company has yet to sign a launch contract, but stated that this commercial station would be deployed in low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
in 2021, and start to receive passengers in 2022. Bunger said that travelers will be required to complete a three-month training program before launch. Guests would be able to free-float, look out windows, practice hydroponics
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in aqueous solvents. Terrestrial or aquatic plant ...
, and play in a ' hologram deck'.This luxury space hotel could be up and running in four years
''NBC News'' 5 April 2018
See also
* Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
* NewSpace
Private spaceflight is spaceflight or the development of spaceflight technology that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency.
In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Uni ...
* Space tourism
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
* Bigelow Commercial Space Station
The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was a private orbital space station under conceptual development by Bigelow Aerospace in the 2000s and 2010s. Previous concepts of the space station had included multiple modules such as two ...
References
External links
Orion Span
home web site
Станция Аврора станет первым космическим отелем класса люкс.
{{Space tourism
Proposed space stations
Space tourism
Private spaceflight companies