On 3/2/2021 12:19 PM, wrote:
"This decade will see the start and completion of construction on humanity’s
first hotel in outer space, according to the group behind it, Orbital Assembly.


This is somewhat old news. I know I saw this writeup last year, not sure
I remember where, Popular Mechanics? Don't know.

But yes, I agree with Jeff, this is too grandiose to be deliverable in
the time-frame they project. It also features lifting body escape
vehicles along the ring circumference should there be some unnamed
mishap. So now you have *two* development projects to complete before it
becomes real.

Bigelow is out of business (also as Jeff says), due to the COVID
shutdown in 2020.

https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerosp...ire-workforce/

The company leaves out the hope that it might restart after the pandemic
lockdown in Nevada ends. Without a government contract in hand, that
seems unlikely to me.

Besides China, there *is* a new space startup in Kentucky called Space
Tango, that might actually be on track to deliver an orbital laboratory
(they call it a mini-space station, in actuality it looks a lot like a
cargo Dragon capsule). The intent is to provide an automated orbital
processing facility for manufacturing objects (like fiber optic cable)
that benefit from forming in zero-g and then returning them intact to
Earth. Currently the only means to do that is with cargo and crew
Dragons or Soyuzs returning from the ISS.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/202...7881614353802/

But perhaps, with a little innovation, one might be able to spin these
off into 'space campers', a fully automated capsule for the well-heeled
who might want to take a family trip into orbit, experience zero-g for a
week or so and then return. Ride sharing on a Falcon 9 or perhaps a
Rocket Labs Neutron.

I'd say this route will be far more likely than Orbital Assembly's plan
within the next 25 possibly 50 years. What is strange is that I can see
potential lunar bases and Mars base before this becomes reality.

Dave