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Hospitality. The Final Frontier.

December 26, 2024

"Just look at that view." "Yes, but how about that seat?" (Photo credit: Starlab Space)

Earlier this year, Hilton leaders gathered at the 75th International Aeronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, to talk about the future of hospitality in space, including how to make accommodations comfortable, how to make food fresh and sustainable and more.

Announced in 2022, the collaboration between Hilton and Voyager Space aims to reach new heights of comfort for state-of-the-art scientific discovery as well as crew habitation spaces aboard the Starlab space station.

The new station, operated through a US-led, global joint venture between Voyager Space, Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation and MDA Space, will be a free-flying commercial satellite designed to facilitate groundbreaking research and innovation but also benefitting from Hilton’s years of expertise. Hilton’s partnership is meant to ensure that every stage of the astronaut’s journey, from ground preparations to in-space living and their return to Earth, is infused with comfort and hospitality.

During the International Aeronautical Congress, a panel of Hilton experts—including Larry Traxler, SVP, Global Design Services and Emma Banks, VP, F&B Strategy & Development, EMEA—joined Tim Kopra, CEO of Starlab, Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Alexander Gerst, ESA astronaut & geophysicist, and Dr. Sian Proctor, astronaut, geoscientist & space artist, onstage to talk about how they’re working together to make human space exploration comfortable and enjoyable, ways of how food can be more sustainable in space and how technology can be used to provide access to fresh ingredients.

Hilton, Voyager Space, and Starlab Space also shared the first fly‑through video of Starlab Space Station at the event.

The fly-through video revealed several key areas within the Starlab space station, including crew communal areas, wellness spaces and advanced sleeping quarters.

The collaboration between Hilton, Voyager Space, and Starlab is breaking new ground in blending space innovation with hospitality expertise, promising to transform the future of space tourism and create new benchmarks for comfort and sustainability in space habitation.