{"id":17457,"date":"2021-11-17T20:05:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T12:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/orbites-plans-for-space-training-complex-get-a-boost-from-famed-french-designer-philippe-starck\/"},"modified":"2021-11-17T20:05:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T12:05:59","slug":"orbites-plans-for-space-training-complex-get-a-boost-from-famed-french-designer-philippe-starck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/orbites-plans-for-space-training-complex-get-a-boost-from-famed-french-designer-philippe-starck\/","title":{"rendered":"Orbite\u2019s plans for space training complex get a boost from famed French designer Philippe Starck"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-655096\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211116-orbite3-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Orbite customers and instructors take a zero-G airplane flight during spaceflight training. (Orbite Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The French designer who created the look for Virgin Galactic, Spaceport America and Axiom Space\u2019s orbital habitat has taken on yet another space-centric project: the space training complex planned by a Seattle-based venture called Orbite.<\/p>\n<p>Orbite says Philippe Starck will design its Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Complex, which is expected to consist of multiple buildings and go into operation at a U.S. location in late 2023 or 2024.<\/p>\n<p>For now, that\u2019s about all that can be said about the project. Further details, including the site selected for the complex and the specifics of Starck\u2019s vision for the facility, will be announced in the months ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will have to wait a little more during the winter,\u201d Orbite co-founder Nicolas Gaume told GeekWire.  \u201cWe thought it was great to announce that such an amazing designer, who shares so much of our vision for astronaut orientation, preparation and training, could be disclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 72-year-old Starck has designed projects ranging from hotels and yachts (including a yacht for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs) to bathroom accessories. But he\u2019s best-known for his space-related projects, including the Virgin Galactic logo that incorporates a close-up of billionaire founder Richard Branson\u2019s iris.<\/p>\n<p>Embed from Getty Images<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1217774040?et=fSTcZN_5TxZUso6VhCVAPw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=Vykk082PcXMhrqPA81Oc2f2oPZ4-yDP9TSh75lkQM4E=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"385\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpace is the future,\u201d Starck said today in a news release. \u201cWith the Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Complex, I am honored to be able to give individuals rare educational opportunities to step into astronauts\u2019 shoes and prepare for thrilling orbits in space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starck said the Orbite project is \u201cinspiring and groundbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am delighted to be collaborating with Orbite on this one-of-a-kind project that is advancing the opportunities for civilization to encounter the wonders of space and celebrate the uniqueness of Earth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Gaume and the privately funded venture\u2019s other co-founder, veteran space entrepreneur Jason Andrews, aren\u2019t merely waiting for Starck to come up with a set of drawings. Orbite (pronounced \u201cOr-beet,\u201d French-style) already conducted an initial \u201cspace camp for grownups\u201d in France in August, and the next training session is due to take place in Florida early next month.<\/p>\n<p>The sessions are more expensive than your typical teenage space camp: August\u2019s five-day, four-night program carried a price tag of $29,500, and the prices for December\u2019s three-day, two-night session start at $15,000.<\/p>\n<p>But Gaume, whose family runs a boutique hotel in France that was renovated under Starck\u2019s guidance, knows how to blend luxury and space experiences to create value for an upscale clientele. August\u2019s program, for example, featured a space-food tasting session as well as zero-G and high-G airplane flights.<\/p>\n<p>Trainees also donned virtual-reality headsets to get a feel for four kinds of space tourism experiences, including the suborbital flights offered by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, an orbital trip on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and a round-the-moon excursion on SpaceX\u2019s yet-to-be-built Starship. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zero gravity and Michelin star food in a can: 'The National' trains for spaceflight\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hqBa3woroLI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Andrews, who presided over Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries before joining up with Gaume, says Orbite is carving out a special niche in the nascent market for spaceflight training.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve positioned ourselves as this neutral third party,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have this \u2018try before you buy\u2019 opportunity, to say, \u2018You\u2019re about to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars. Maybe you should understand what you\u2019re getting yourself into and what type of adventure you want.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eight customers took part in August\u2019s inaugural training program, and Gaume guessed that about a third of them will be taking an honest-to-goodness spaceflight in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Andrews said the August session was something of an experiment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe designed our entire facility around class sizes of 10, so it was an opportunity to test that hypothesis,\u201d he said. \u201cIs that the right size? Is it too big? Is it too small? The way we think about that is, most of these people, if they go [on a spaceflight], it\u2019s only going to be four participants at a time, or five or six. So you take two capsules\u2019 worth of five people and put them together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The experience \u201creally validated the class size, and what we want to do going forward,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n<p>2021 is the year when space tourism finally took off, largely due to Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic voyage; the Blue Origin trips taken by Jeff Bezos and William Shatner, and Inspiration4\u2019s orbital mission in a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Andrews hopes all those flights \u2014 plus Axiom Space\u2019s first mission to the International Space Station, which is set for early next year \u2014 will get more people thinking about training with Orbite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou saw William Shatner when he got off the Blue Origin flight \u2014 he was just overcome by the grandness of it,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really what Orbite does. It prepares people for those opportunities.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orbite customers and instructors take a zero-G airplane flight during spaceflight training. (Orbite Photo) The French designer who created the look for Virgin Galactic, Spaceport America and Axiom Space\u2019s orbital habitat has taken on yet another space-centric project: the space training complex planned by a Seattle-based venture called Orbite. Orbite says Philippe Starck will design [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4530,4326,493,2340],"class_list":["post-17457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-jason-andrews","tag-orbite","tag-space-tourism","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}