Talk about making space travel available for civilians is becoming more and more common with companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic all investing in the idea. Maybe this is what Elon Musk wanted all along. Joining the ranks of these companies is Russia and is taking it a step further. It just unveiled plans to build a luxury hotel on the International Space Station (ISS).
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities is planning to build a 20 ton, 51-foot long luxury hotel module. The module would consist of four sleeping quarters, a pair of hygiene and medical stations, a lounge area, exercise equipment, and Wi-Fi. The estimated cost of the luxury hotel is $279 – $446 million.
Russia is already constructing Science and Power Module (NEM-1), which is planned to be launched to the ISS by 2021 and the luxury hotel would be resembling NEM-1. Before you think about a vacation in outer space, your pockets need to be really loaded as the passengers are going to be the ones paying for the construction.
RKK Energia is Russia’s leading space station contractor and has come up with a long-term plan to pay for the module and wants to book at least 12 passengers who are willing to pay $4 million upfront and $12.6 million later in the two years leading up to the flight. Finally, they will have to pay an additional $10.8 million before the launch.
This brings the total to a $40 million for a simple 1-2 week trip to the luxury hotel. A month-long stay with optional spacewalk would be an additional $20 million. So if you have a ton of cash lying around and are bored with everything Earth has to offer, you can take a vacation off the planet.