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The First Space Hotel Is Set To Open In 2027

While hotels in many countries around the world are still closed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, space construction company Orbital Assembly Corporation has recently announced that its first space hotel, called Voyager Station, is set to open in 2027.
The idea for the Voyager Station dates back to 2012 and a Californian company called Gateway Foundation, which later established Orbital Assembly Corporation to realize its ambitious plan. First plans were introduced to the world in 2019, describing a futuristic rotating hotel inspired by sci-fi movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Orbital Assembly
Back then, the hotel was called Von Braun Rotating Space Station, but its name was later changed because the connection with the infamous Nazi regime aerospace engineer, Wernher Von Braun, caused unwanted controversy.
The latest design of the ambitious space hotel features 24 modules connected together by elevator shafts, offering over 11,600 square meters of habitable space for its 280 guests. The modules form a massive wheel that rotates around a central docking bay to create artificial gravity using centrifugal force.

Orbital Assembly
“The station rotates, pushing the contents of the station out to the perimeter of the station, much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water — the water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place,” explained Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at Orbital Assembly Corporation to CNN Travel.

Orbital Assembly
To keep everyone’s anxiety levels as low as possible, Voyager Station will have not only a bar, restaurant, gym, and other features expected in a luxury cruise ship but also 44 emergency return vehicles (ERVs) programmed to autonomously return back to Earth.
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Orbital Assembly Corporation plans to position its first space hotel 500-550 kilometers above Earth’s surface in a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning it will always face the same position relative to the Sun. This is mainly to reduce thermal stress on key structural components.
Not much information on how much it will cost to book a room in the space hotel has been revealed so far, but it’s safe to assume that it will exceed the average person’s annual salary several times. Rumors suggest that a 4-day stay will set you back $5 million.
News
Checkout.com Brings Visa Direct Push-To-Card To The UAE
The payment company is the first acquirer in the UAE to launch Visa Direct’s solution, enabling safe, instant money transfers.

Checkout.com has taken the UAE a step closer to its goal of a fully digital economy by becoming the first acquirer in the country to offer Visa Direct’s Push-to-Card solution. The new service will streamline money transfers for both businesses and consumers, enabling near-instant transactions across local and international markets.
Visa Direct connects over 190 markets and supports over 8.5 billion endpoints, including cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets. Push-to-Card transactions enhance efficiency for business users and consumers by allowing money to be sent quickly and easily to eligible Visa cards while leveraging the company’s secure network for reliability.
“Visa Direct is transforming the way money moves globally, and we are excited to see Checkout.com leverage this technology to meet the evolving demands of businesses and individuals alike by offering them a faster, more convenient, and secure way to send and receive funds,” said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, CEMEA.
The UAE has been at the forefront of digital payment adoption, driven by a national push toward a cashless economy. Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager for MENA at Checkout.com, emphasized this shift: “By providing seamless, secure, and real-time payout capabilities, we’re empowering merchants with the agility to thrive in this fast-evolving landscape, while effectively meeting the growing consumer demand for speed and convenience. The Push-to-Card solution not only reinforces our commitment to powering payment performance but also showcases our agility in bringing yet another innovation to the UAE market.”
Also Read: Qareeb Partners With Pantheon For GCC Bitcoin Mining Expansion
Checkout.com’s latest MENA eCommerce data highlights the region’s increasing engagement with financial technologies, with around 80% of consumers participating in activities beyond basic online payments, such as money transfers and personal wealth management. The growing demand for real-time financial transactions has made fast, seamless payment solutions a priority.
To meet this demand, Account Funding Transactions (AFTs) have gained traction in the UAE. By integrating AFTs with Visa’s Push-to-Card services, Checkout.com is helping merchants offer secure, real-time account top-ups. Currently processing over one million AFTs per month with Visa, Checkout.com is now playing a leading role in modernizing financial transactions in the region.
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