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You could be booking an Earth-view room at the Von Braun Space Station by 2025
You might want to save your pennies before you book that Walt Disney World vacation you've been longing for, as we've got an out of this world destination with a stellar view eclipsing anything available in sunny Florida.
The Gateway Foundation is ramping up their two-pronged plan to promote space tourism, a zero-gravity construction industry, and scientific research aboard a pair of orbiting superstructures, the Von Braun Rotating Space Station and The Gateway Spaceport. Both endeavors are scheduled to support scientific research and space commerce, but also function as an exotic hotel for outgoing tourists.
With all the challenges and conflicts of such a momentous task ahead of them, The Gateway Foundation and partnering space construction company Orbital Assembly plan to build the first space station as early as 2025 as a vital initial step to colonizing space and other heavenly worlds.
This sleek rotating structure was partially-inspired by the visionary ideas of Dr. Wernher von Braun, the pioneering German military rocket scientist who was instrumental in the development of the behemoth Saturn V rocket and NASA's successful Apollo moon landing program.
Designed by Gateway Foundation executive team member and space station lead architect, Timothy Alatorre, the Von Braun Station is hoping to become the largest human-made structure in space and will be fully capable of accommodating up to 450 people.
This gleaming ring of technology will feature amenities ranging from restaurants, viewing lounges, and musical concerts, to bars, libraries, and sports programs, allowing passengers to take full advantage of weightlessness while on board.
"The inspiration behind it really comes from watching science fiction over the last 50 years and seeing how mankind has had this dream of starship culture," Alatorre told Space.com. "I think it started really with Star Trek and then Star Wars, and [with] this concept of large groups of people living in space and having their own commerce, their own industry, and their own culture.
"We expect the operation to begin in 2025, the full station will be built out and completed by 2027," he added. "Once the station's fully operational, our hope, our goal, and our objective is to have the station available for the average person. So, a family or an individual could save up reasonably … and be able to have enough money to visit space and have that experience… It would be something that would be within reach."
While this might seem like an unrealistic timeframe considering the obstacles, logistics, and inevitable delays involved with an expensive project of this magnitude, Allatore still believes it's totally possible.
What do you think of The Gateway Foundation's lofty goals and would you spring for a ticket into space when reservation lines open for its first guests?
Check out SYFY WIRE's exclusive images in the gallery below and imagine yourself comfortably floating above our Big Blue Marble with cocktail in hand!
