Hotel In Space ,Galactic Suite go into orbit by 2012

BARCELONA, Spain - A venture called Galactic Suite says it wants to open a hotel in space in 2012, but it's not yet clear exactly how much backing is behind the design concept.

Galactic Suite's Barcelona-based architects say guests would pay $4 million each for a three-day stay aboard the orbital equivalent of a three-bedroom boutique hotel.

Before the flight, guests would get eight weeks of intensive training at a space camp on a tropical island, company director Xavier Claramunt told Reuters. Then the tourists would ride an private shuttle into orbit. Hotel guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman

Claramunt said the hotel's joined-up pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space.

"It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge," says Claramunt. "How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy."

To take a zero-gravity shower, the guests would enter a spa room in which cleansing bubbles of water float around. When they're not admiring the view from their portholes, they will take part in scientific experiments on space travel.

At the end of the stay, the shuttle would bring guests back down to Galactic Suite's spaceport. "There is fear associated with going into space," Claramunt said. "That's why the shuttle rocket will remain fixed to the space hotel for the duration of the guests' stay, so they know they can get home again."

Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the Galactic Suite concept began as a hobby. He told Reuters that a space enthusiast agreed to provide most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel - but he declined to name the backer.

Galactic Suite's Web site says another supporter of the venture is Florida-based 4Frontiers Corp., a company that cites Mars settlement as its top goal. A representative of that company declined to discuss the project Friday but said the company's co-founder and chief executive officer, Mark Homnick, was on his way back to Florida from Barcelona.

CTAE, a Barcelona-based aerospace center, was also listed as a supporter. Claramunt told Reuters that his venture was in talks with private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Claramunt said the market for orbital space travel could be substantial. "We have calculated that there are 40,000 people in the world who could afford to stay at the hotel. Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don't know."

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Galactic Suite," the first hotel in space, will open for business in 2012, its Barcelona-based architects said Friday.

Reservations for Galactic Suite will begin in 2008, company director Xavier Claramunt told journalists.

"Galactic suite will allow clients to travel around the World in 80 minutes," Claramunt said.

It will be made of aluminum and have five modules, he said.

The three boutique rooms will be decorated with mini components because of a lack of room and due to the fact that objects float in space because of the absence of gravity, Claramunt said.

"The greatest challenge will be the bathrooms with zero gravity. Accommodating the clients' intimate activities is not easy. To take a shower in zero gravity, the guests will enter the spa in which water bubbles will float," he added.

Guests will also be able to participate in scientific experiments during their stay in Galactic Suite hotel, 450 kms from Earth.

The space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing three million euros (3.99 million U.S. dollars) for a three-day stay, during which guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day, its architects said.

It is estimated that some 40,000 people worldwide will be able to buy a Galactic-Suite ticket which is not as expensive as the 20-million-dollar ticket paid by the first space tourist Dennis Tito, who traveled to space in Soyuz TM-32 on April 28, 2001.

For the moment Galactic Suite has private investors from United Arab Emirates and Japan, local press reported.

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The shuttle astronauts may have to patch it during a spacewalk

www.careerbd.net , Fla. (AP) - NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour's belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.

The gouge - about 3 inches square - was spotted in zoom-in photography taken by the space station crew shortly before the linkup.

``What does this mean? I don't know at this point,'' said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. If the gouge is deep enough, the shuttle astronauts may have to patch it during a spacewalk, he said.

On Sunday, the astronauts will inspect the area, using the 100-foot robot arm and extension beam. Lasers on the end of the beam will gauge the exact size and depth of the gouge, Shannon said, and then engineering analyses will determine whether the damage is severe enough to warrant repairs.

The gouge - white against the black tiles on the underside of Endeavour - is several feet from the starboard main landing gear door. It appears to be the result of ice, although engineers are not positive; the damage could have been caused by a piece of foam insulation that came off the external fuel tank.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station Friday after performing an orbital backflip that permitted a close-up look for any damage from flyaway foam on launch day.

With commander Scott Kelly at the controls, Endeavour pulled up to the space station and neatly parked as the two spacecraft soared above the South Pacific. The shuttle and its crew of seven, including teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, will remain at the outpost for at least a week.

Morgan's entrance into the space station was dramatic, to say the least.

Her shuttle crewmates, all but one of whom floated in ahead of her, resembled paparazzi as they photographed her coming through the hatch. The station residents also captured the moment with cameras. She paused, as the flashes popped, a video camera running in her right hand and sunglasses pushed up on her forehead.

Morgan - who was Christa McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's tragic mission in 1986 - briefly set aside her camera to hug the three space station residents, then took more video of the crowded outpost. She plans to use the video for educational events after the mission.

Earlier, while still 625 feet out, Kelly steered Endeavour through a complete somersault so that the three space station residents could photograph the shuttle's belly. The 210-mile-high backflip - which lasted nine minutes and spanned the entire Atlantic - has been standard procedure ever since the Columbia disaster, providing a rare camera view of the shuttle's often-nicked underside.

Space station astronaut Clay Anderson videotaped Endeavour's backflip, while his two Russian crewmates snapped furiously away on digital cameras equipped with high-powered zoom lenses. Nearly 300 digital pictures were quickly beamed back to Earth.

NASA is especially eager to see these zoom-in pictures because of concern over three pieces of foam insulation from the external fuel tank that may have struck Endeavour during Wednesday's launch. Two are believed to have hit the shuttle's right wing.

Mission managers do not suspect any critical damage, noting the three foam fragments were probably too small and one came off too late in the launch to pose any threat. But they do not want to dismiss the possibility of damage, particularly to the vulnerable wings, which is precisely what happened during Columbia's doomed mission four years ago.

NASA hopes to ascertain whether any damage occurred after scrutinizing Friday's pictures along with data collected during a laser inspection by the shuttle crew on Thursday using a 100-foot robot arm and extension boom, and other imagery.

Endeavour is delivering several new space station parts, most notably a 2-ton square-shaped beam that will be hooked up to the orbiting outpost on Saturday. The astronauts also will install a giant storage platform for spare parts and a new gyroscope that will replace one that is broken.

For the first time, a docked shuttle will draw power from the space station using a new system being tested by Endeavour. If the system works as advertised, NASA will extend Endeavour's flight from 11 days to 14 days, allowing the shuttle to remain docked at the station for a record 10 days.

Of the 10 people aboard the joined spacecraft, Morgan is clearly the attention-getter. The former Idaho elementary schoolteacher backed up McAuliffe during Challenger's short-lived mission and was invited by NASA into the astronaut corps 12 years later. Columbia's catastrophic re-entry in 2003 further delayed her trip into space.

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