Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2018

26 MAY-JUNE 2018 ASTRONAUTICS (about forty bookings). Three days spent in this luxurious orbiting hotel would have cost 4 million dollars. Within a few years, that project vanished into thin air, a fate also touched to other initiatives by private companies that evidently did not learn much from the history of astronautics writ- ten by large government agencies. While it is undeniable that private aero- space industry is achieving excellent re- sults in the field of carriers and is close to offering suborbital flights at reasonable prices, it is also true that orbital tourism still appears far on the horizon (not to mention interplanetary tourism, now just a mere fantasy). Orion Span might be the first company to realize a project of that kind, if, as stated by its spokespersons, it is true that Aurora Station is currently under construction in Houston, Texas. Here’s how Bunger presented the project at the San Jose meeting: “We developed Aurora Station to provide a turnkey desti- nation in space. Upon launch, Aurora Sta- tion goes into service immediately, bring- A phase of im- plementation of Aurora Station, starting from the first segment (in the foreground), which will be brought into orbit in 2021 and will welcome tourists in 2022. [Orion Span]