{"id":18242,"date":"2018-12-07T17:15:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/one-small-step-orion-span-kicks-off-2m-crowdfunding-campaign-for-space-hotel\/"},"modified":"2018-12-07T17:15:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:15:16","slug":"one-small-step-orion-span-kicks-off-2m-crowdfunding-campaign-for-space-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/one-small-step-orion-span-kicks-off-2m-crowdfunding-campaign-for-space-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"One small step: Orion Span kicks off $2M crowdfunding campaign for space hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aurora
An artist\u2019s conception shows Orion Span\u2019s Aurora Station with a spaceship nearby. (Orion Span Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orion Span, a Houston-based venture that\u2019s planning to put a luxury hotel in orbit, has kicked off a crowdfunding effort aimed at raising up to $2 million in new investment.<\/p>\n

The campaign is being run through SeedInvest, an online investment service that operates under a special set of regulations developed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The system is similar to crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter \u2014 but instead of getting T-shirt rewards or discounts on gizmos, the contributors receive securities, typically in the form of equity in the company.<\/p>\n

During the first hours of the 50-day campaign, Orion Span attracted more than $150,000 in investment. The funding round can amount to as much as $2 million, with a $5 million valuation cap.<\/p>\n

In a news release, Orion Span founder and CEO Frank Bunger said the crowdfunding campaign provided a \u201cperfect opportunity to enable everyone to invest\u201d in Orion<\/span> Span\u2019s vision of making space more accessible with its orbital Aurora Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we introduced Aurora Station earlier this year, we had an incredible, almost overwhelming response,\u201d Bunger said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a surprise, as there is so much excitement around the prospect of space travel right now. We\u2019re thrilled to be opening up this project to the broader public, giving everyone a chance to chip in on the ultimate mission to colonize space, and share in this historic moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting Aurora Station ready for occupants is certain to require more than a few million dollars. Orion Span\u2019s plans call for the standalone space station to be built in-house and sent into low Earth orbit in 2021, with 12-day trips becoming available in 2022.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the tours are expected to start at $9.5 million per person. The company is already taking reservations for deposits of $80,000 (payable in dollars or cryptocurrency).<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i5DtN1hdc4s<\/p>\n

A lot of the logistical details \u2014 including the identities of Orion Span\u2019s investors and launch providers \u2014 have yet to be laid out. And there are several other commercial ventures angling for the space hotel market.<\/p>\n

Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace has set up a separate company to create private-sector orbital outposts. Texas-based Axiom Space says it\u2019s planning to offer orbital travel packages for $55 million, starting as early as 2020. And NanoRacks, another Houston-based company, has its own development program for retrofitting rocket upper stages as habitable space outposts.<\/p>\n

For now, Orion Span is the only space hotel venture that\u2019s turned to the crowdfunding model, but be prepared to wait a while for any payout: The securities that are provided through SeedInvest won\u2019t be tradeable until Orion Span gets listed on a national exchange \u2014 or until it\u2019s acquired.<\/p>\n

Correction: An earlier version of this report gave an incorrect amount for the SeedInvest funding round. In a tweet, Orion Span said it\u2019s a $2 million campaign, not a $5 million campaign. The $5 million figure refers to the valuation cap as specified on SeedInvest\u2019s webpage. Check out Orion Span\u2019s website and the SeedInvest webpage, as well as the documents linked online, for details on how the crowdfunding arrangement works.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows Orion Span\u2019s Aurora Station with a spaceship nearby. (Orion Span Illustration) Orion Span, a Houston-based venture that\u2019s planning to put a luxury hotel in orbit, has kicked off a crowdfunding effort aimed at raising up to $2 million in new investment. The campaign is being run through SeedInvest, an online investment […]<\/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":[5110,5111,493,5112],"class_list":["post-18242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-orion-span","tag-seedinvest","tag-space-tourism","tag-tourism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18242"}],"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=18242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}