Space hotel to open by 2016?

The hotel will house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows.

It sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie,and the ultimate fantasy of many travellers — a vacation in space.

But,for those fed up with overcrowded resorts with no room to move,it will be a real holiday with plenty of space,thanks to a Russian firm that is to build a hotel in orbit 217 miles up.

Just getting there would be an adventure in itself it would take two days aboard a Soyuz rocket,and it would not be a budget holiday: A five-day stay would cost you £100,000 on top of £500,000 for journey,the ‘Daily Mail’ said.

The hotel,or the Commercial Space Station to give it its proper name,is due to open by 2016,and it will be far more comfortable than the International Space Station used by astronauts and cosmonauts.

The hotel would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the earth turning below.

And,in the weightlessness of space,visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical or horizontal,while showers will be sealed affairs to stop water going where it shouldn’t.

Tourists,who will be accompanied by experienced crew,will dine on food prepared on earth and sent up on the rocket,to be reheated in microwave ovens,says the company behind the unique project.