Hotels in Space: Another Giant Step for Branson

[Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI,

"Hotels in Space: Another Giant Step for Branson"
Hotels Magazine
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=616&topicId=12552&docId=l:371985527&start=25

: SIR Richard Branson is taking a giant leap for mankind by drawing
: up plans to build the worlds first space hotels, his space flight
: company Virgin Galactic has told The Business. Alex Tai, its
: operations director, who will pilot

: Virgins first commercial space flight in 2008, has held talks with
: US hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow about the project, Virgin
: Galactics president Will Whitehorn confirmed.

: Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable pods it believes could
: receive the first space travellers by the end of the decade.
: Branson, Virgin Galactics chairman, revealed the space hotel
: discussions in Dubai last week.

: Branson said: We are talking to people who are developing hotels
: for space. We are also talking to people who are developing launch
: craft to get hotels into space. People know that we can turn
: something that might seem a bit bizarre into a commercial reality.
: Personally, I think theres a demand for space hotels.

: Space hotels have also long been an interest of Burt Rutan, the
: engineering brain behind Virgins SpaceShipTwo, the company said.

: Branson last week announced that the Spaceship Company, the 70:30
: joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Rutans Scaled
: Composites, was set to begin construction of its first space
: craft, SpaceShipTwo, within six weeks.

: Virgin Galactic is keeping the design of SpaceShipTwo secret. It
: spent $25m (E20.6m, £14.4m) on the design and will spend $100m on
: construction. The plane, about the size of a Gulfstream jet, is
: modelled on SpaceShipOne, a design by Rutan which won the
: $10m Ansari Xprize in October 2004 after completing its second
: voyage into space. It travelled to 50,000 feet on the back of a
: carrier aircraft. It then accelerated from 140 knots to supersonic
: speeds within 11 seconds. It has a feather design which allows the
: plane to float to earth safely like a shuttlecock.

: Passengers on SpaceShipTwo will spend 15 minutes in space. They
: will be able to undo their seat buckles and float weightlessly
: around their cabin. Around 444 people have travelled to space so
: far. Virgin aims to take that many within the first year and
: 10 times that amount within the first three years. Whitehorn said
: the Spaceship Company would not start work on SpaceShipThree until
: after 2010. It is intended to be the worlds first commercial
: orbital spacecraft with potential to dock with space hotels. He
: said: SpaceShipTwo will be the testbed for a future spaceship
: which will be capable of orbital flight.

: Commercial orbital flight will allow passengers to travel from the
: UK to Australia in half an hour.

: Of the 100 places for founders on SpaceShipTwo, 75 have been
: filled, each paying $200,000 upfront. Virgin Galactic has already
: raised a total $13.1m in deposits. Virgin hopes to bring the price
: down to $100,000 within 10 years. Branson hopes to plough back any
: profits into more magnificent journeys into space. He said: I
: think this can be a commercially successful venture as well as an
: awesome adventure.

--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


--
Space Future        | To unsubscribe send email with the subject "unsubscribe"
www.spacefuture.com | to "sf-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx".