More on Inflatable Space Hotels

StJefferson writes "It's anything but a traditional Budget Suites room, with a price tag projected to be somewhere in the range of US$50,000-100,000 per night. But Bob Bigelow's inflatable space habs will get their first trial next November, and are expected to go into production in 2008. There's even speculation that Bigelow is in talks with Burt Rutan regarding the small problem of getting customers to the door of his high-flying outposts. And the best part? Bigelow's doing this all on his own, as a private entrepreneurial venture. He's only answerable to his wife regarding the wisdom of this investment, and 'so far, she's on board.' Remind you Heinlein fans of anyone?" We've mentioned this guy before.

Comments

Burt Rutan?

[RockClimbingFool]

Burt Rutan isn't getting anything to orbit in the forseeable future. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble but this X-Prize thing is just subsidized advertising for Rutan's company.

Re:Burt Rutan?

[RockClimbingFool]

Wow, god forbid you say anything bad about "Gods" like Burt Rutan, Steve Jobs, etc. Burt Rutan's craft is not solving anything. Sorry to disappoint the mods.

Burt Rutan does not matter.

[Noose For A Neck]

You know what really irritates me these days is the sheer pomposity of the name "SpaceShip One". Hello? It's not a spaceship. It's an airplane. They did not even get close to entering orbit. They have done nothing to solve the re-entry problem. It's an (ugly-looking) airplane with a rocket strapped to the back that can't even take off on its own power.

So why is Burt Rutan suddenly the go-to guy for all things space-related - what's he going to do, drop payloads off in the high atmosphere and just "pretend" he's sent them to orbit as they plummet into the ground?

Re:Sky high prices

[Oligonicella]

This just *might* be because the American companies did the R&D and the German companies were just working from the produced specs with no R&D. Speculating.

No, YOU'RE a troll!

[Anonymous Coward]

*pbbbbbbt*