Source: SpaceX
SpaceX is getting into the tourism travel business. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced two tourists are paying for a trip around the moon next year. He said the tourists have already placed significant deposits for their trip with a crew. Their names were not released.
The company said the space flight will take place late in 2018, after a crew aboard a NASA Dragon Two craft is sent to the International Space Station. “Like the Apollo astronauts before them,” the company says in a statement. “These individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.
Musk said the private mission would travel between 300-thousand and 400-thousand miles and would take about a week to complete the long loop around the moon and return to Earth. Just because these two mystery riders have gotten the first crack, don’t think you’ll totally miss out. According to the company, “Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow.”