Space hotel 'to open 2012'

[Erna]

_http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/2c28abd1db494cf2990bd22b89793d45/02-11-2009-09-58/Space_hotel_to_open_2012

Space hotel 'to open 2012'

Barcelona - A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.

The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost $4.4m for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.

During their stay, guests would see the sun 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's CEO Xavier Claramunt, 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 told Reuters Television.

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.

Virgin Galactic

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 450km above the earth, travelling at 30 000km 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 - which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveller.

"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for 3 days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn't been abandoned. After 3 days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth," he said.

More than 200 people have expressed an interest in travelling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved.

The numbers are similar for Virgin Galactic with 300 people already paid or signed up for the trip but unlike Branson, Galactic Suite say they will use Russian rockets to transport their guests into space from a spaceport to be built on an island in the Caribbean.

But critics have questioned the project, saying the time frame is unreasonable and also where the money is coming from to finance the project.

Claramunt said an anonymous billionaire space enthusiast has granted $3 billion to finance the project.

- Reuters

There are 2 biographies on Richard Branson; Losing my Virginity (authorized) and Branson (unauthorized).

I haven't read Branson myself, but I spoke with someone who has. Apparently the author says Branson is a psychopath.

From Amazon:

No tycoon is more popular, few claim to be richer, and none has masterminded a more recognizable brand than Richard Branson. What is behind the success of the buccaneering balloonist, the tabloids’ favorite celebrity nude, the "grinning jumper," and the scourge of corporate goliaths? Helped by eyewitness accounts of more than 250 people with direct experience with Branson, Tom Bower has uncovered a different tale than the one so eagerly promoted by Virgin’s publicists. Here is the full story of Branson—his businesses, his friendships, his ambition, his law-breaking, his drug-taking, his bullying. From the cockpit of a balloon in the clouds to the center of Branson’s operations in his Holland Park home, this book is an intimate scrutiny of exactly how Richard Branson created himself and sold himself. Tom Bower’s biography reveals Branson to be a single-minded profiteer who, while occasionally generous to others, has a fixed purpose to enhance his family’s wealth in secret off-shore trust funds. Instead of a glittering saint, Branson emerges as a devious actor, proud of swiping for his own profit the good ideas of others. From his quest to acquire the license for the National Lottery to his plans to launch space tourism with Virgin Galactic, this fully updated edition follows Branson’s enterprises and investments up to his failed bid for Northern Rock.

This is one of the most shocking books I have ever read. Shocking not only in its content, but also in absoutely trashing my formerly favorable opinion of Branson-not just once, but over and over, practically beating my mind to a pulp.
I picked up this book on a recent trip to London. I'd always had a favorable impression of Richard Branson, so I decided to buy one of his biographies. I noticed several different ones for sale. I chose this one for two reasons. The other biographies were AUTHORIZED and VETTED by Branson. This one claims to be objective, but unauthorized, and explains why this is so, very thoroughly. The book is written by an investigative historian and journalist, and is METICULOULY researched, with pages of sources sited. The book has been gone through with a fine-toothed comb by the publisher's lawyers, who have already vetted the book. Every single thing reported in this book can be completely and thoroughly substantiated.

So what does this shocking book say? Branson's high school teacher predicted he'd either end up very rich, or in jail. He very nearly did end up in jail in his early career. He basically takes advantage of everyone, hiding behind his supposedly altruistic motives, while his real motives are to rip off everyone he can, having built an empire equivalent to a house of cards. Before I read this book, I would have liked to meet him. Now I feel he's absolute poison, and he completely revolts me. He apparently jumps into bed with every possible girl, but doesn't even have the decency to pay their cab fair home. After enticing star-struck girls into bed, he apparently tells his friends that he wakes up in the morning and says, "Who the f*** is this in my bed?" (direct quote from the book). Just as former empires around the world were built on the back of slave labor, so he treats his employees. He gives the public image of "fun" while absolutely breaking his poor employees' backs-and he has gotten a lot worse with his employees' treatment as the years went on. Furthermore, his is an empire built on sand, that could continually collapse at any moment. He knows little about running business, and doesn't like detail. Most of his businesses lose money, but he has a couple that bring in the cash to keep the others afloat, with a team of accountants who continually shuffle the money around. Surprisingly, this book does admit that he has some strengths. These include hiring good people around him to take care of all the details and run his businesses (since he can't, and isn't interested). But in the end, because he doesn't pay these people well or treat them well, they leave him, and he can only attract mediocre talent-one cause of the Virgin brand not being of good quality. His real strengths are in deal-making and self-promotion. His balloon trips are all "stunts" to attract publicity to himself and the Virgin brand, in a way that is far less expensive than advertising would be (he basically doesn't advertise, and considers it a big waste of money). He keeps expenses down, skims off the cash, and keeps it offshore to avoid British taxes. And he lies, lies, lies, all the time. According to this book, he's a poison pirate. I was reminded continually while reading this book of the old quotation, "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven." I have nothing at all against rich people, but in the case of Richard Branson, this quote seems very appropriate.

This book is not a quick read. I could only absorb about 20 pages at a time. If you are interested in Richard Branson, you should definitely read this book.