SpaceX To Fly 2 People To Orbit The Moon by Next Year

[mattsmith48]

SpaceX says it will fly two people to orbit the moon next year.

The surprising announcement was made by company chief Elon Musk on Monday.

Two people who know one another approached the company about sending them on a weeklong flight around the moon — though no landing would be made.

Musk won't identify the pair or the price tag. He says they've already paid a "significant" deposit.

Musk did add that the would-be space tourists include "nobody from Hollywood."

Musk says SpaceX is on track to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in mid-2018. This moon mission would follow about six months later, using a Dragon crew capsule and a Falcon heavy rocket.

Musk says the moon mission is designed to be autonomous — unless something goes wrong.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/spacex-people-moon-2018-1.4001807

[PlasmaHam]

Cool, but SpaceX does have a history of long delays and testing periods. You've heard them for years constantly saying that they will soon bring private citizens into space. I will be extremely surprised if they actually do it next year, instead of delaying it for 5 years+. But as someone who finds space travel extremely interesting, I am hoping this goes well and as planned.

[mattsmith48]

Cool, but SpaceX does have a history of long delays and testing periods. You've heard them for years constantly saying that they will soon bring private citizens into space. I will be extremely surprised if they actually do it next year, instead of delaying it for 5 years+. But as someone who finds space travel extremely interesting, I am hoping this goes well and as planned.

I agree that it probably won't happen next year, but I don't think it will be a 5+ years delay I think depending on when they do the 1st launch of astronauts to the ISS and how it goes, I think we could see this happen by the end of 2019.