The free market to conquer the final frontier?

This is a bit “above and beyond”–by about 150 vertical kilometers–my usual beat, but it’s worth noting: a space hotel is on the way. The Galactic Suites’ opening has been announced for 2012, orbiting around the planet. It is being backed by investors in Japan, America, and–of course–the UAE, and stays will cost $4 million for three days.

I’m not quite sure how spacefarers will get to the Galactic Suites. Virgin Galactic’s second suborbital ship SpaceShipTwo isn’t schedule for flight until 2009, and its planned orbital successor SpaceShipThree is in very early planning stages. Is any other private company closer? Perhaps Soyuz will serve the hotel; the Shuttle will be retired by then.

While Galactic Suites may not have much of a future (at least not a near future), it is a marker of the way space will be explored: not with expensive, declining-return, government run programs for which spaceflights of negligible practical value cost a half-billion per, but with private-sector innovation and private-sector money.

It would also be hard to do worse than the government program’s safety record: 2 percent death rate per astronaut-flight. The private sector wants space travel to be profitable and desirable, and unsafe craft and facilities would deter interested spacefarers.

So whether or not the Galactic Suites’ 2012 date is a PR stunt, it’s pointing in the right direction.

Space Hotel Slated to Open in 2012 [SPACE.com]