Russia yesterday announced plans for a hotel in orbit 217 miles up which would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the Earth turning below.

Just getting there will be an adventure in itself – it will take two days aboard a  Soyuz rocket – and it won’t exactly be  a budget holiday: A five-day stay will  cost you £100,000, on top of £500,000 for your journey.

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

Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies which will construct the hotel, said: ‘Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through large portholes.

‘The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space.’