Hotel juggernaut Hilton has signed on to help design its next hotel only this one is in space. The hotel brand is partnering with Voyager Space Holdings to help design astronaut accommodations for a private space station.
Hilton, one of the leaders in hospitality around the world, announced a partnership with Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin to help design the accommodations for astronauts on a private space station known as the Starlab.
Starlab is similar to the aging International Space Station (ISS) and will be a continuously crewed commercial space station. The private space lab is being built by Voyager Space Holdings in partnership with Lockheed Martin and intends to be operational before the ISS is decommissioned.
Starlab is planned to be the first continuously crewed, free-flying commercial space station, leveraging innovative, yet known, technologies to provide a science and mission capability equivalent to that on the ISS today
By using a company like Hilton, which has no space experience, but is well versed in hospitality and experiences, Voyager thinks they can deliver a unique experience for astronauts.
“It’s almost like looking at it with a fresh set of eyes and saying: ‘How do we reimagine this experience,’” said Dylan Taylor, the Chairman, and CEO of Voyager Holdings. He later noted that he sees this as “a bit of an edge.”
Hilton’s CEO, Chris Nasseta noted, “for decades, discoveries in space have been positively impacting life on Earth, and now Hilton will have an opportunity to use this unique environment to improve the guest experience wherever people travel.”
The “Hilton Space Hotel” as some have taken to informally calling it, is not really a Hilton Space Hotel at all and will remain a privately branded space station through Voyager. However, while not formally a Hilton property, the partnership will give Hilton an opportunity to consider the unique realities of space life which is almost a certaintty at this point, which means space hotels will also become a reality, and Hilton may have an edge.
The Voyager Starlab aims to be operational by 2027.
No word on whether Hilton Diamond status will be honored for arriving astronauts.
