I popped around to a few sites... buddy claims to be well-financed (I can't confirm or deny that) and has $3B up front. Figures a market that can
draw from 43,000 who "could" afford such a jaunt. 15 - 18 sunrises are possible depending on orbit. No real mention of the hardware. There is no
real surplus of "uphill" rides either... all the launch folks would seem to be booked.
Buddy's "Galactic" website is... either avant-garde or bizzare or maybe both. He could be a brillant "nutter" (which is fine with me). If he's
for real 2012 isn't that far off. His older architectural site is "normal". Could be "space-junk", but the idea is there. I will watch this with
some interest.
Some links:
Architectual Site... the Galatic Suite
homepage and the concept page from the same site
here. Sort of "arty" a bit like the DaVinci Project early on... I suggest they land in
St. Paul Alberta at Paul Hellyer's pad.
Orbital hotel in 60 or 70 months? Maybe a disposable one using inflatable "baggie-rooms"... wouldn't want to be around for an MMOD hit though.
Yikes! The whole "contracts to build and service it" is not there yet.
Cheers,
Vic