Galactic Suite Moving Ahead?

Barcelona-based space tourism company Galactic Suite announced in a press release and information packet today that 38 people from across the world have made reservations to stay at the company's space hotel just since January of this year via the company's website. The trips will cost 3 million euros, something over $4 million dollars at current exchange rates, and include four days in space after 18 weeks on a Caribbean island preparing for the flight. Family of the client will be welcomed on the island.

The information packet contained an interesting look at the approach the company proposes to take to launch its own spacecraft. It seems the launch will be done by accelerating the craft to the speed of sound along a three mile long maglev line, after which the craft's rocket engines will deliver it to orbit. That sounds neat, but the spead of sound is far short of orbital velocity, while that kind of acceleration may expose customers to substantial g-forces. Such acceleration at sea level would also heat the skin of the craft through friction with the thick air.

Galactic Suite's first space hotel is supposed to open in 2012, according to the press release. So far, however, nothing seems to be happening. Only a little more than three years out, there have been no test flights of what would be the first privately funded spacecraft capable of taking humans into orbit, and no scaled-down tests in space of the hotel modules-- unless GS plans to use Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable modules. Building a three-mile-long maglev line on a relatively small island is quite a task in itself, yet we have no indication that the project has even begun. The GS press release does not even specify which island will host these activities.

I wonder if the GS space hotels will serve fish.