Now that's a vacation to talk about! SpaceX plans to take a pair of space tourists around the moon next year.
Since the last Apollo mission in 1972, no humans have left low Earth orbit, let alone got close to the moon.
It’s no surprise that serial entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to change that. Musk recently announced that his SpaceX company has signed up a pair of thrill-seeking space tourists to make a trip around the moon in 2018, according to CNN. The tourists, who have already paid a large deposit on what is likely a multi-million dollar journey, will lift off on the same launch pad near Cape Canaveral, Florida that was used for the Apollo space program missions decades ago. The travelers will begin their fitness tests and training regime in preparation for the flight later this year.
Obviously, SpaceX is betting this won’t be a one-time mission. The company says other people have expressed strong interest in making the trip, and as precedent, space tourists in Russia have paid $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station.
To meet the deadline for the week-long trip, SpaceX has laid out an aggressive timeline. The space adventurers will be traveling on the Falcon Heavy rocket, which has not yet flown, but is slated to make a test flight this summer, CNN reports. The Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will actually hold the tourists, is scheduled for a demo mission later this year.
Apparently Musk is already talking about future space travel to Mars.
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