The Spanish promise to open the first space hotel by 2012Nov 05, 2009
Galactic Suite Space Resort, a Spanish enterprise, announced a couple of years ago that it plans to open the world's first space hotel. This Monday, Galactic Suite confirmed that by 2012 the first guests will be able to visit this extraordinary hotel located on an orbit near Earth, reports Reuters. Meanwhile, many experts remain skeptical in regard to the expediency and timing of this multi-billion dollar project. According to the representatives of the company in Barcelona, a three day stay at the cosmic hotel will be priced around 3 million Euro ($4.4 million). The price also includes an eight week training program at a specialized center on one of the Spanish tropical islands.
During the stay at the hotel, hundreds of kilometers above the earth surface, every space tourist will be able to see the sunrise 15 times per day, and make a rotation around the world every 80 minutes. All the visitors of the orbit space hotel will have to wear a special suit, which will allow to "crawl" on the wall of the hotel room like "spider-man". According to Xavier Claramunt, the head executive of Galactic Suite Space Resort and an ex-aerospace engineer, the current project should make the company an absolute leader in a new and very promising industry of space tourism. "One can imagine now, that in 15 years it will be a casual thing for our children to spend a weekend in space", - says Claramunt. The future hotel is already being built in the hangars of Spaceport America. A New Mexico based company, Spaceport America has been working on the development and construction of commercial space tourism-related assets.
Virgin Galactic is a company of a famous British billionaire and aviation enthusiast, Richard Branson. The company promises, among other things, to be able to send tourist in suborbital space for as little as $200 thousand, albeit being a very short timed flight. Galactic Suite Space Resort was created in 2007 and hopes to open the first suborbital hotel in space, at a height of 450km above the surface of the earth. The hotel will basically be a space ship, moving along the orbit with a speed of 30 thousand kilometers per hour and will be able to receive up to four guests and two pilots-astronauts.
Approximately one day is necessary to get all the way up to the space hotel, which is essentially comparable to a mountain resort, explains Claramunt. According to Claramunt, tourists will be brought onboard of a Russian rocket from the spaceport which is currently being built on one of the islands in the Caribbean archipelago. At least 200 people already expressed their unambiguous interest in a three-day space tour on a near-earth orbit, and 43 people already reserved their flights.
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