Spanish Company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012.This despite critics questioning the investment and the time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.
The Barcelona-based architects of the Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost $4.4 million for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including and eight –week training course on a tropical island.
During their stay, guests would see the suri rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear Velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
Galactic suite ltd CEO Xavier Claremont, a former aerospace engineer , said the project will put his company at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecast space travel will become common in the future.
“It’s very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space,” he said.
A nascent space tourism industry is beginning to take shape with construction underway in New Mexico of Spaceport America, the world’s first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.
British tycoon Richard Branson’s space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
Galactic Suite Ltd, set up in 2007, hopes to start its project with a single pod in orbit 450 km above the earth , traveling at 30,000 km per hour , with the capacity to hold four guests and two astronaut-pilots. It will take a day and a half to reach the pod to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveler.
“When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for three days. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that ha hasn’t been abandoned. After three days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth,” he said.
More than 200 people have expressed an interest in traveling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved.
But critics have questioned the project, saying the time frame is unreasonable and also where the money is coming from to finance the project.
Clara mount said an anonymous billionaire space enthusiast has granted Rs 14,000 crore to finance the project.
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