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Energiya, the Russian rocket and space group, will build the world’s first commercial space station in a partnership with Orbital Technologies, the US high technology company. Capable of housing up to seven people, the CSS will serve as a hotel for space tourists and a possible emergency refuge for astronauts in distress. It will also help Energiya attract private investment as Russia strives to maintain a leading role in space. The CSS would “be a true gateway to the rest of the solar system,” Energiya said in a statement. “A short stop over at our station will be the perfect...

BARCELONA (Reuters) – 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 3 million euro (2.7 million pounds) 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...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – It’s a new form of “high stakes” from this gambling city—a privately-funded and designed expandable space module now circles the Earth. Bigelow Aerospace here is the odds-on-favorite to create a low-cost, low Earth orbit space complex that is accessible to the commercial sector. That goal has been bolstered by the success of their Genesis-1 expandable module, lofted into space July 12 courtesy of a converted Cold War rocket—the Ukrainian-built Dnepr booster provided by ISC Kosmotras. Even as Genesis-1 circles the Earth, work is already underway for a Genesis-2 launch before year’s end. That flight is expected...

The July 12th launch on a Russian Dnepr (SS-18) rocket of Bigelow Aerospace’s experimental Genesis module is another step in the ongoing evolution of the space tourism industry. One has to give the Russians credit for turning what were once their most feared ICBMs into moderate to low-cost space launch vehicles. The Genesis module was delivered into the right orbit with an accuracy of about 400 meters, which suggests that the old US estimate of the SS-18’s accuracy was correct. It seems that the launch took place from an operational silo; the implications of this are a subject for a...

On the Las Vegas Strip, home of the biggest and most extravagant hotels in the world, shell-shocked tourists file past one stunningly ostentatious display after another. In the desert city, water says wealth like nothing else, and there’s a lake of it in front of the Bellagio, with fountains blasting 240 feet in the air in time to Broadway show tunes. Just up the street, the Mirage demonstrates that it has money to burn with a fiery volcano erupting from the top of a 119,000-gallon waterfall. Tucked away on the service roads behind the Strip, the humble Budget Suites of...

SIR Richard Branson has said one of the next projects he wants to undertake is building a Virgin hotel in space. The multi-millionaire entrepreneur is working on plans for Virgin Galactic Airways and has designers building five spacecraft ready to take passengers into orbit.