From an Air Force-trained pilot at 16 to a space startup founder by 21
Skyler Chan is not your typical founder. The prodigy, who became an Air Force-trained pilot at the age of 16, is now on a mission to build humanity’s first ever hotel on the Moon with his space tech startup GRU Space – an extraordinary vision that aims to open its doors to “space tourists” by 2032.
Building the Moon’s first hotel – and beyond
Founded in 2025, GRU Space already feels like the kind of idea that might sound implausible – until you look a little closer. As of today, the company is now taking applications from travelers willing to put down deposits of up to $1 million for a chance to stay in what it hopes will become the world’s first hotel on the Moon.
The experience is designed for people already familiar with private space travel, but also for those drawn to the romance of the extraordinary, including couples imagining a once-in-a-lifetime “honeymoon” on the Moon.
What makes GRU Space different isn’t just the ambition, but the way it plans to get there. Rather than shipping materials from Earth, the company plans to use robotic systems to transform lunar soil into durable building blocks, creating modular habitats capable of surviving the Moon’s unforgiving conditions.
If regulatory approvals fall into place, construction could begin as early as 2029, with the first guests arriving by 2032 – a timeline that aligns with NASA’s renewed push to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon.
At the centre of this vision, however, is its founder – someone whose own path to space began long before GRU Space ever existed.
“I’ve been obsessed with space since I was a kid,” Chan says. “I’ve always wanted to become an astronaut, and feel extremely fortunate to be doing my life’s work.”
Early signs of potential
Chan’s path to founding GRU Space is anything but ordinary. By his mid-teens, he was already training as an Air Force pilot, and before most people finish university, he had worked on vehicle software at Tesla and helped develop a NASA-backed 3D printing experiment that was sent into space.
Putting plans into motion
At just 21, Chan went on to found GRU Space and was accepted into Y Combinator as its youngest solo space founder. The mix of hands-on aviation experience and real-world engineering gives him a rare perspective – one that blends big ambition with the technical know-how to actually build it.
Paving the road to the Moon
GRU Space’s milestones are ambitious yet measured. Their 2029 demonstration mission will validate the process of turning lunar soil into bricks, an essential step before expanding habitat modules inside lunar caves.
By 2032, the team expects to open what would be the world’s first lunar hotel, crafting unique experiences in a frontier that has never hosted visitors.
And the vision doesn’t stop there. Beyond lunar tourism, GRU imagines helping build America’s first Moon base – complete with roads and warehouses – before eventually expanding to much bigger ideas, like city-sized habitats on Mars or even outposts in the asteroid belt.
Together, these projects point toward a future where living and working beyond Earth isn’t science fiction, but a new kind of economy unfolding in space.
“If we succeed, billions of human lives will be born on the Moon and Mars and be able to experience the beauty of lunar and martian life,” Chan says.
For GRU Space, the path forward may still be unfolding, but the ambition is clear – to turn the idea of life beyond Earth into something real, step by step.
