WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American company is planning to launch the Internet in space on board the International Space Station, allowing communication with astronauts and showing live feeds of their experiments.

Spacehab Inc., which is providing astronaut quarters for the Space Station due to be completed in 2004, on Friday unveiled plans for the first permanent commercial presence in space through their Internet "space portal.''

Web-site broadcasts from the Space Station will "offer a virtual trip to space'' and allow people sponsoring experiments to monitor the work and talk with the astronauts, said Spacehab chairman Shelley Harrison, who plans to sell advertising space on the Web site.

"This is a cross between the world of space and the world of the Internet,'' Harrison told a news conference.

The Washington D.C.-based company plans to spend $50 million on the project which it intends to raise through private placements, debt offerings and a possible sale of more of the company's share.

Energia's module, designed to accommodate up to seven astronauts and named "Enterprise'' after the "Star Trek'' spacecraft, will be launched by the Russian Space Agency. It will be attached to the Russian side of the ISS and initially be manned by two Russians and one American.

The International Space Station is a $60 billion venture by 16 nations being built 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. It has been delayed repeatedly due to Russia's failure to complete work on its sections of the station, which will be a giant laboratory weighing almost a million pounds (450,000 kilograms) when it is finished in 2004.

Spacehab is no stranger to space, having owned and operated habitable research modules on the Space Shuttle used for commercial experiments and research.

The Enterprise will offer laboratory conditions in space for both short and long-term experiments, unlike the Shuttle which is only in space for days at a time.

Harrison said one research subject companies may pursue was growth of protein crystals which pharmaceutical companies use to help identify potential new drugs. They grow with greater clarity and fewer imperfections in space.

Spacehab, which has been losing money lately because of the stand-down of the Space Shuttle fleet and delays on the ISS, plans to build on a program it already runs on the Space Shuttle in which school children can have experiments they develop conducted by astronauts.

Spacehab plans to broadcast live feeds of astronauts conducting experiments and give school children the chance to interact with them via the Internet. The company expects to make money from advertising and sponsorship.

Harrison, who said he could also broadcast news and even have a deejay aboard the Enterprise, said he hoped the new Internet site would attract 50 million people. The company is in partnership talks with an established Internet company.

But asked whether he would be able to offer trips to the Space Station, Harrison said: "The best we can do is offer a virtual trip to space.''

"We can do that with the Internet which is the best medium we can think of to give people a feel of actually doing things and being in space and interacting with the people up there.''