When you’re Elon Musk, your life is busy. One day, you’re announcing that your company Tesla has an official presence in the UAE and the day after you’re unveiling solar roofs for consumers. And just yesterday, you announce that despite some setbacks to the Mars mission, you’re sending two people on a trip around the Moon via SpaceX.
Fly me to the moon … Okhttps://t.co/6QT8m5SHwn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2017
Here’s the surprising part, the two lucky people aren’t astronauts, they’re two run-of-the-mill customers. The two, who weren’t named, have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. As a result, SpaceX plans to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year, with the help of NASA. More information will be released the closer we get to launch day.
“We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.”
According to Musk, the trip around the Moon would take approximately one week. The craft would skim the surface of the Moon, go further out into deep space, and loop back to Earth — approximately 300,000 to 400,000 miles travel distance in total.
Furthermore, this would also be one of the first few missions to test out SpaceX’s new Falcon Heavy rocket, which will begin testing later this Summer. It will be the most powerful vehicle to reach orbit after the Saturn V moon rocket with 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust. It will also be one of the first few missions to use the Crew Dragon (Dragon Version 2) spacecraft.
SpaceX could not do this without NASA. Can't express enough appreciation. https://t.co/uQpI60zAV7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 28, 2017
However, both the rocket and the spacecraft will first be contracted for use by NASA for trips to the International Space Station. Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth. Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral – the same launch pad used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions.
Source: SpaceX Updates
