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Brienna Rommes, Orbite’s chief astronaut trainer, guides participants in the Astronaut Orientation program through a presentation on spaceflight. (Photo Courtesy of Magali Maricot)
Seattle-based Orbite says that it’s completed a $4 million funding round and sealed a strategic deal with Accor, one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, to advance its plans for offering space-oriented experiences on Earth.
Those experiences include luxury travel packages to exotic destinations such as Paris, the Caribbean island of Curaçao and Antarctica. Orbite (which takes its name from the French word for “orbit,” pronounced or-beet) is also aiming to build a campus on Florida’s Space Coast that would serve as a center for spaceflight training.
All of the experiences have a space angle to them: For example, the Paris package focuses on space foods and life in space habitats. One of the Curaçao offerings features submersible trips as an analog for spaceflight. And the Antarctica trip lets visitors feel as if they’re on a “glamping” trip on Mars.
“We don’t want to say this is space camp for adults,” Orbite CEO Jason Andrews told GeekWire. “This isn’t made-up entertainment. This is an actual luxury vacation where you get to try elements of astronaut training — real astronaut training — so there’s a high level of authenticity to it.”
Prices start at $19,500 for a three-day session in Paris, and range up to a minimum cost of $215,000 for the eight-day Antarctica trip. “It’s in line for a luxury vacation for our target clientele, but it’s unique in that you learn a lot about space, elements of astronaut training and what it’s like to live in space,” said Andrews, who previously served as the CEO of Spaceflight Industries.
The target clientele includes some participants who may be considering the idea of traveling to the final frontier with, say, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, or Virgin Galactic, or SpaceX. Others may merely be interested in an earthbound vacation that has a space angle.
In the years since its founding in 2019, Orbite has conducted several spaceflight orientation sessions for small groups of clients — sessions that included virtual-reality simulations as well as zero-G and high-G airplane flights. The expanded schedule is due to kick off next spring, Andrews said.
Orbite’s partnership with Accor is a key part of the business plan. “We are developing a luxury space experience / astronaut training facility, and so it makes sense to have a strategic partner — a hospitality partner who can help bring some of the processes as well as the global reach to drive growth and demand for that facility,” Andrews said.
Agnes Roquefort, head of development for Accor Luxury & Lifestyle, said Accor “has always been at the forefront of creating transformative hospitality experiences.”
“We are excited to partner with Orbite to pioneer a new frontier in space hospitality, offering our customers a unique opportunity to explore space while fostering a deeper connection to the well-being of Earth,” Roquefort said in a news release.
One of White Desert’s luxury pods at Echo Base overlooks the Antarctic plains, where Orbite will simulate the harsh realities of life in space. (Photo Courtesy of White Desert)
Andrews said Accor participated in the $4 million Series A funding round, but he declined to identify other investors. “We describe our investors as family offices, and wealthy and high-net-worth individuals,” he said. Some of the funding has come from Andrews himself and from his co-founder, Nicolas Gaume, who serves as Orbite’s executive chairman.
Gaume said “we really have invested into having the best in terms of training and experience, and we surely also surround ourselves with amazing advisers.” Orbite’s advisers include retired NASA astronaut Charlie Precourt and former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver.
The training sessions will be presented by in-house experts as well as astronauts and other experts on facets of spaceflight, ranging from medicine to mealtimes. One of Orbite’s recent private gatherings to preview the new “Experience Train Fly Program” included a presentation on space food by Jérôme Lacressonnière, who’s the director of famed French chef Alain Ducasse’s consultant firm, Gaume said. Ducasse Conseil has been charged with coming up with space menus for the European Space Agency and CNES, France’s space studies center.
It’s taken longer than Orbite’s founders expected to ramp up operations. The current projection is that the gateway campus in the Cape Canaveral area will be open for business in 2027
Astronaut Orientation participants experience weightlessness during a zero-G airplane flight guided by Chief Astronaut Trainer Brienna Rommes, who led them through spaceflight training exercises. (Orbite Photo)
Andrews said rising interest rates have complicated the financing plan for building the campus. “Given the interest rate environment, it’s been challenging in the United States for all development activity,” he said. “It’s a macro problem, it’s not an Orbite problem, but we’re still making progress on that.”
The other factor has to do with SpaceX’s Starship super-rocket, which is expected to widen the market for spaceflight — including the space tourism market. The test program for Starship is taking longer than originally projected, which means Orbite is still waiting for the demand to kick into higher gear.
“Nicolas and I started Orbite because of a long-term vision for what this new space economy is going to be, and we also really believed that that vision wasn’t going to be achieved until Starship was operational,” Andrews said. “Maybe we were a little early in 2019 when we started the company, but at the same time, I think we’re super excited that we are where we are from an industry perspective.”
Last month, SpaceX put its Starship launch system through its sixth flight test, and the tempo of the tests could soon accelerate. At a recent investment conference, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said she “would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years.”
That’s music to the ears of Andrews and Gaume.
“I think now is the time,” Andrews said. “I think this investment marks recognition by some pioneering investors that this is going to be big, and that it’s the right time and place to get involved.”
