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Mark Your Diaries For Take Off In 2016 If The Latest Space Hotel Rumor Can Be Believed

True, there are only two more Space Shuttle launches to go, but geek idol and hotelier Robert Bigelow says that ain't no thing. The Budget Suites of America founder is planning a space hotel that could be in orbit as early as 2016. Yay, for even more space hotel rumors!

What makes us actually, kinda sorta believe this one? For one thing, Bigelow has already launched two prototypes, through his holding company Bigelow Aerospace, so he's already much farther along than your average space hotel developer. (Ahem.)

He's also got a plan to make some money, reports the Orlando Sentinel:

Bigelow officials said they plan to target space-faring countries looking to expand their research capabilities and small nations that don't have a space program and want to send astronauts or "important VIPs."

A Bigelow brochure notes: "There could be relationships with foreign leaders or corporate presidents that can be strengthened due to this kind of gift or other variations of this gesture."

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Space Hotels / Budget Suites / Richard Branson / Robert Bigelow / Jeff Bezos / → All Tags

Will a Hotelier With a Passion for Zero Gravity Take Us to Outer Space?

It's looking more likely all the time that space tourism will be led by private industry, not slow-moving NASA. So who better to get the infrastructure going than a hotel man?

The November issue of Wired magazine has an feature story on Robert Bigelow, billionaire founder of the Budget Suites hotel chain. Turns out he is a bit of a space nut, living in Nevada and owning a chunk of land where UFOs have been sighted. He has been pouring his fortune into Bigelow Aerospace, a company that is setting up innovative space stations that inflate in orbit instead of having to launch in pieces.

You won't find the story online, unfortunately. Despite the magazine's name, most Wired stories can only be found in old fashioned print on ink. The big takeaway though is that space hotels are not first on the list in terms of projects for the stations. First of all, there's not that much money in it. Tenants looking to do science experiments and zero-gravity manufacturing are going to pony up a lot more money than zillionaires who want to brag they ordered room service while gazing down at the Earth.

Once Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos gets a space shuttle for tourists going, however, Bigelow Aerospace's modules can be configured to suit any purpose. So later we could see hotel suites--but definitely not Budget Suites.

Related Stories:
· Bigelow Aerospace [Official Site]
· Space Hotels [HotelChatter]
· Space Travel/Tourism [Jaunted]