Vacation packages to space

The latest frontier in tourism isn’t off-the-beaten path Eastern Europe or chilly Antarctica, it’s space. Galactic Suite has announced it will sell 18-week space packages that include space training on a Caribbean island, the flight into space, and three nights’ accommodations in an orbital hotel.

Packages for 2012 are expected to go on sale in 2008 for somewhere between €3 and €4 million (about $4.09 to $5.45 million U.S. dollars, see XE.com for the latest exchange rate). Hospitality.net has information on the space package, and Reuters has a more in-depth article on the space hotel.

The thing I like about space tourism packages is that it means that you don’t have to deal with finding a place to stay once you arrive. It’s an instance when planning ahead really pays off.

While in space, you don’t want to get lost, so it’s convenient that Google has just launched a space mapping service. Google Sky has similar navigation to Google Earth, but features constellations and planets.