Galactic Suite, a space firm located in Barcelona, Spain, is planning on creating space hotels by 2012, and populating these structures with space tourists from below.

(MSNBC) Galactic Suite’s Barcelona-based architects say guests would pay $4 million each for a three-day stay aboard the orbital equivalent of a three-bedroom boutique hotel.

Before the flight, guests would get eight weeks of intensive training at a space camp on a tropical island, company director Xavier Claramunt told Reuters. Then the tourists would ride an private shuttle into orbit. Hotel guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman. [...]

Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the Galactic Suite concept began as a hobby. He told Reuters that a space enthusiast agreed to provide most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel — but he declined to name the backer.

In order to help realize their vision, Galactic Suite has forged partnerships (or at least gained support) with several other space firms such as 4 Frontiers, Global Business Technologies and the Aerospace Research and Technology Centre.

They intend upon creating a “chain” of orbiting space hotels circling our planet, and it seems as if they have partnered with ADD+Xavier Claramunt to help construct their “molecule-look alike” space stations.

Europe’s entrance into the field is welcome, although they may have to play catch up to Bigelow Aerospace which has successfully launched two space stations in orbit.

Note: Galactic Suite has also launched several weblogs to compliment their young company, although their main one appears to be Galactic Suite News.

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