- This article is about the space tourism company. For the space station, see Polaris Orbital Hotel. For the accident, see Polaris hotel disaster. For the shuttle, see Polaris shuttle. For the episode of season 3, see Polaris (episode).
Polaris Space Tours was the world's first space tourism company founded by entrepreneur Sam Cleveland in a partnership with Karen Baldwin. The company existed from the mid 80s until mid 1992.
History[]
Founding & first operations[]
The company was founded in the mid 80s during the global Space Boom. In March 1986, they unveiled their first spaceplane called Polaris 1, which would start taking paying customers to low Earth orbit from the beginning of 1987.[1]
Polaris Hotel[]
- Main article: Polaris Orbital Hotel
In 1990, Sam and Karen announced their latest venture, the construction of an own space station in Earth's orbit to be used as an orbital hotel.[2]
On July 17th, 1992, the Polaris hotel had its soft opening with the wedding of Danny and Amber Stevens. The official opening was planned for August.[2]
Dissolution & liquidation[]
After the Polaris hotel disaster, during which Sam Cleveland died, the company was dissolved. The hotel was shut down and scheduled to be deconstructed and sold for scrap. However, Dev Ayesa, CEO of Helios Aerospace, offered Karen to buy the station to use it as the command and habitation module for its Mars spacecraft Phoenix.[3]
Gallery[]
See also[]
References
- ↑ Bonus Video: Another Giant Leap: 1984-1992 - Polaris Space Tours (1986)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 For All Mankind TV series, season 3, episode 1, "Polaris"
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 3, episode 2, "Game Changer"