Russian Company Orbital Technologies Plans Luxury Space Hotel

(Sept. 30) -- A Russian company is aiming to take the lead in the latest market for luxury hotels: outer space.

Orbital Technologies has unveiled plans for its celestial hotel, which would let guests enjoy the thrill of space travel without having to endure the spartan conditions of life on the International Space Station.

The four-room hotel would tailor food to suit customer preferences and may even have food prepared by celebrity chefs, BBC News reported. A shuttle craft would ferry guests to the hotel.

"Our planned module inside will not remind you of the ISS. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through large portholes," said Sergei Kostenko, CEO of Orbital Technologies.

Until now, space tourists have had to hitch a ride in decidedly unluxurious conditions of the International Space Station, where astronauts wash with no-rinse soap to save water and sleep in cots about the size of a phone booth.

So far, Orbital Technologies hasn't decided what to charge guests at the luxury space hotel.

There may even be the prospect of a space price war. Orbital Technologies hopes to have the hotel in orbit by 2016, The Los Angeles Times said. That's one year later than Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, which is also working on a space hotel.

The Nevada company's owner, Robert Bigelow, is the founder of Budget Suites of America hotel chain. He has already launched prototypes of inflatable modules that could serve as space hotels and research labs.

"Bigelow is a competitor. That's all I'm going to say about that," Kostenko said, according to Discovery News.

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Kostenko's planned hotel would follow the orbit of the International Space Station and could even provide safe haven to astronauts if they ever had to evacuate the facility.

Kostenko says he is working with U.S.-based Space Adventures, a company that arranged eight privately paid visits to the International Space Station.

The project has been a hit with potential investors, who are considering offering hundreds of millions of dollars for a stake in the venture.

"I'm very optimistic about space tourism in the future," Kostenko said, according to Discovery News.