a large wheel in space floating above the earth

The Future of Traveling  
This is what one company, Orbital Assembly, wants its future space hotel to look like. 

Courtesy of Orbital Assembly

CCSS

R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Your Vacation in Space

Several companies may soon send tourists into space. Get in line for a trip that’s truly out of this world.

Slideshow

It’s spring break, 2027. 

    Time for a family vacation. You just visited your grandparents last month. Everyone’s tired of camping at the lake. Maybe it’s time to change it up.

    So you pile into the car for a trip to the launchpad. You ride an elevator to the top of a 230-foot rocket. You climb inside a space capsule with six other people. The engines roar. In a few minutes, you’re shooting through the sky at 17,000 miles an hour. You burst through Earth’s atmosphere. And in less time than it takes to drive from New York to Florida, you arriveat a brand-new hotel in space

    What is there to do in a space hotel? Relax as you check out planet Earth through the windows. Have a soda in the sky lounge. Shoot hoops on the basketball court. There’s not much gravity up here, so guess what? You can jump 12 feet highand dunk.

    Welcome to your vacation in space.

a space station orbiting earth

Dima Zel/Shutterstock.com 

Life in Space  
The International Space Station circles Earth. Right now, six people live and work there.

Fact or (Science) Fiction

    A space vacation may sound like science fiction. But we have the technology to make it happen. The International Space Station (ISS) has been circling Earth for more than 20 years. It’s a floating science lab. Six people at a time live and work there. Spacecraft travel there from Earth about 10 to 15 times a year

    Each mission to the ISS has been organized by world governments. Usually, only astronauts with years of training get to go to space.

    Now several companies are working to send ordinary people to space as tourists

    A company called Orbital Assembly plans to start building a space hotel in 2026. Another company, SpaceX, has already flown missions to the ISS in a ship called the Crew Dragon. It may soon take four paying customers into orbit for several days. And two other companies are testing special space planes for shorter trips to the edge of space and back.

two people grabbing at floating fruit in a cramped room

NASA

Flying Fruit  
While a spacecraft is in orbit, things like food (and people) float in the air.

A View From Space

    So what do you need to know before your vacation in space? You’ll have to prepare for microgravity. The motion of a spacecraft in orbit creates a feeling of being weightless. That means you float around in the air. You need to learn how to move around a room. Push off a wall too hard and you’ll bounce off the opposite wall like a Ping-Pong ball. Bumps and bruises are common for first-time space travelers

    Motion in space can also make you feel sick. If you throw up, be sure to do it into a bag. Otherwise, you’ll have small, stinking globs of vomit hanging in the air. Ew

    Another important thing to remember: Take time to enjoy the view. Fewer than 600 people have seen Earth from space. Many of them say it changed their lives. From 250 miles up, you can see the curve of the planet. You see the whole United States in one glance. You don’t see the borders between countries. “When I first looked back at the Earth,” said astronaut Alan Shepard in 1971, “I cried.”

people playing basketball while space is visible through the windows

Courtesy of Orbital Assembly

Watch Out, Lebron!
In a future space hotel, you’d be able to jump 12 feet in the air to dunk a basketball. 

An Expensive Trip

    Space vacations might sound awesome. But will they soon replace the family camping trip? Probably not. It takes billions of dollars to build a spacecraft. And it’ll cost a fortune to travel in one. A few minutes in microgravity on a space plane will probably cost you $250,000. For a week in the space hotel, try $50 million!

    Don’t be too disappointed. Over time, spacecraft will get cheaper to build. The price of space travel will start to come down. Hang in there until you get old. Maybe you’ll be able to afford a retirement home with a really nice view of planet Earth

ACTIVITY
5 Questions About
Space Travel

What to do: Answer the questions below. Use full sentences.

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Who has most commonly traveled to space in the past

what icon

What can people do in microgravity

when icon

When does Orbital Assembly plan to start building its space hotel

why icon

Why aren’t space vacations likely to replace family camping trips anytime soon?

how icon

How is the price of space travel likely to change over time?

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