Move over astronauts, a pricey Spanish space resort is offering the ultimate “out of this world” vacation, for anyone who can afford the $4 million ticket. Forget honeymooning anywhere on Earth, by 2012, the Galactic Suite Project expects to be sending its first guests into orbit for a three-night stay, 300 miles up.

The Barcelona-based space tourism company says the multi-million dollar price tag will include 18 weeks of preparation on a Caribbean island before blasting off to the orbital hotel. And what will you do when you get there? Galactic says its space tourists will participate in international space experiments during their stay.

The Galactic Suite Project was formed in January by a group of architects, aerospace engineers and industrial engineers from Spain and the United States. The founders have reportedly already made initial contact with Japanese and UAE private investors interested in investing in the project. The first tickets are expected to go on sale in 2008.

The company says it has already contacted various scientific organizations interested in making use of the space tourists in zero gravity to obtain samples. Galactic says another attraction of this journey is the possibility to orbit the Earth 15 times every day, and to see 15 sunrises. The hotel will be located at a certain angle from the equator.

In addition to the space hotel, Galactic Suite Project is also planning a hotel complex on a Caribbean island to accommodate the tourists, as well as on the
space shuttles that will transport the “space suites”.

Image credit: Galactic Suite Limited