Exterior View of Genesis module
Space ‘Hotel,’ for Business or Pleasure, Takes Shape
ABC News
Imagine yourself, sometime in the next decade, with a fantastic idea for a new business that requires manufacturing in the weightlessness of space. Or maybe, having made your fortune on Earth, you’d simply like to vacation in a very high place.
The Russians charge upward of $50 million for a short trip to the International Space Station. NASA can’t help you at all. But there’s a Nevada company ready to offer a month’s stay in Earth orbit for $15 million — a bargain, considering that for 40 years, the cost of space travel has stubbornly refused to come down.
Sounds like one of those things guaranteed never to happen? Maybe, but Robert Bigelow has two prototype space habitats, unmanned but functional, orbiting 350 miles above Earth, right now.
“If we’re not successful, I think other countries will be,” said Bigelow from his office near Las Vegas. “I think NASA is on the verge of being irrelevant, except for deep space exploration.”
Read the full story.
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