Outer Space: No Vacancy Until 2012

Every once in awhile, a company comes up with an idea that's out of this world (Heelys? Brilliant!), but I never thought anyone would take the concept so literal. Well color me corrected, because Galaxy Suites Limited is on course to give mile high club inductees new heights to catch their thrills. If all goes to plan, you'll be able to book a 3 night getaway roughly 250 miles above earth in an oribital station they're dubbing a Space Resort. And this isn't the distant future either, they're shooting for the year 2012. All that's required is a "briefed astronaut training process" on Galactic Suite's island spaceport that lasts a few weeks, and you'll be ready to go where, well, man has gone before.

But before you get all starry eyed with anticipation, there's some things you should know. As of right now, none of this exists, reminding me of the whole OLED keyboard hype that people are still waiting for. There only exist rendered images; no spaceport, no space resort, no custom spaceship, and no abundance of investors. That last point could prove particularly tricky, with costs reported to be in the $3 billion range - ouch! And if it does all come to fruition, you'll need to come up with $4 million to join what's sure to be a waiting list filled with movie stars and wealthy tycoons. But hey, if you're going to drop $4 mil, could you think of any cooler way to do it? Me either.

I'm skeptical they'll pull it off by 2012, or that Galactic Suites Limited will even be the ones to orchestrate it all, but what I don't doubt is this concept being implemented sometime during my lifetime. The real question is, how long until Fox puts together an other worldy reality show?