SpaceX to fly two space tourists around the moon in 2018

President Donald Trump’s administration has been pushing NASA to accelerate the timeline of a trip around the moon, long planned for 2021. After more cuts this year, 12 to 24 wannabe astronauts will start training, SpaceX said.

Mr Musk did not reveal who his two customers are, nor how much they paid, but the entrepreneur told reporters they are not from Hollywood. The names of the first two travelers have not been released.

If the government would like to use its rocket and spacecraft instead of the NASA vehicles, that would be just fine, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said. “But they’re coming into this with their eyes open”, Musk said. And among the goals NASA has committed to is encouraging United States companies to invest in spaceflight and develop sustainable business plans. At that point, the Earth’s gravity would pull the ship back into the atmosphere for a parachute landing.

A similar NASA mission, using the long-awaited Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, is in the planning stages for 2019, according to a February 15 announcement. “By also flying privately crewed missions, which NASA has encouraged, long-term costs to the government decline and more flight reliability history is gained, benefiting both government and private missions”.

Musk said he would be willing to give NASA the first chance to combine with SpaceX on a lunar orbit mission, if the space agency is interested. In the almost two years before they take off, the pair will receive extensive training for emergencies, Musk said.

The company suffered a major setback in September past year, when its Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, dealing a blow to the company’s ambitious space exploration project, and even America’s commercial space industry. Liquid oxygen had escaped and become trapped between the rocket’s two stages, causing one of the protective layers to buckle. “SpaceX is the first, but others will follow, to drive innovation and schedule in the marketplace of exploration”. There were no injuries.

While no dates have yet been fixed for this historic event, SpaceX expects to kickstart the Moon tourism business next year, assuming all goes well the first time around.

The company announced Monday that they’ll fly two thrill-seeking tourists to space, to go around the moon and back.

NASA has returned a bag used to collect lunar samples during the first manned moon mission to an IL woman who bought it at auction.