Your Next Vacation Destination Could be the International Space Station

Since man reached the moon, grow-ups and adults have fantasized about the opportunity for flying, living or maybe even vacationing in space. The Russian Federal Space Agency is planning to do just that: make space travel available to civilians.

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Space Vacation 

Imagine soaring through space on a massive rocket. Traveling from star to star, planet to planet, experiencing zero gravity and seeing our tiny blue little pebble of Earth in the vastness of space. Though this all might not be possible now, the chance to fly to space and experience it is closer than you think. You soon may be able to take a luxurious flight up to the space station and spend a few long nights there for your summer vacation. Russia's Space agency is in the process of coordinating a new luxury hotel that will be part of the International Space Station. The visit will allow wealthy tourists to visit the station for a month at a time.

The space tourism trip will set you back a large $40-60 million per trip but it could be worth it. If you have millions burning a hole in your pocket, on your trip you would get the opportunity to take part in a spacewalk with other professional astronauts that are stationed aboard the ISS. Don't worry if you are worried about getting that perfect Instagram photo and sharing it with your friends back home. The space station will include free WIFI as well as exercise equipment, and washing facilities.   

The hotel won't be as spacious as your standard penthouse, but it will beat most views. The hotel will be about 51 feet long and will look similar to the Science and Power Module (NEM-1), which is scheduled for delivery to the ISS in 2021. The luxury space hotel will cost somewhere between $279 million and $446 million. The funding for the hotel will be funded by a healthy mix of state and private investors. The project will be competing with other major space tourism private ventures like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, and Russian firm KosmoKurs. 

As more and more companies invest time and resources into a space tourism, it could lead to a democratization of space travel. Rather than spend millions to go up in space, maybe it will cost as much as a major summer getaway to the Bahamas. Who knows, maybe by 2035 you will be flying up to space for the same price as it would be for you to take flight from New York To London.