MOSCOW – A Russian firm on Wednesday announced an ambitious bid to fill the vacuum in the space tourism market by stationing an orbiting hotel in the cosmos.
The Moscow-based Orbital Technologies has sky-high hopes that its planned Commercial Space Station can serve as a tourism hub for well-heeled travellers and offer overspill accommodation for the International Space Station and workspace for science projects.
But it's unlikely to come anytime soon — the company wants to launch a seven-room station by 2016 but may increase or decrease that capacity based on customer demand.
Until now, space tourists — a handful of megarich CEOs and philanthropists — have had to suffer the indignity of hitching a ride with astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station and float around the space laboratory trying not to break anything.
Now, or at least soon, they will have a place to gawk at the view in private. The design is still being worked out but some sketches released by Orbital Technologies resemble the International Space Station.
Orbital Technologies does not disclose the cost of the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment