Space tourism pioneer Dennis Tito is planning one other area journey, solely this time to the moon.

The 82-year-old American made historical past in 2001 when he turned the primary individual to fund his personal area mission, staying aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for simply over per week.

On Wednesday, SpaceX revealed Tito’s plan for a fly-by of the moon on a voyage that he’ll take along with his spouse, Akiko. The mission will likely be SpaceX’s second privately funded moon journey because it’s additionally planning to ship a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur on the identical journey.

Dennis and Akiko Tito are the primary two crewmembers on Starship’s second industrial spaceflight across the Moon → https://t.co/z2Z9iVGw8x pic.twitter.com/07RHJlb6Dc

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2022

“The Titos joined the mission to contribute to SpaceX’s long-term goal to advance human spaceflight and help make life multiplanetary,” SpaceX mentioned on Wednesday.

The moon mission will contain 10 passengers — the opposite 8 have but to be named — flying round our nearest neighbor earlier than returning to Earth in a visit that’s anticipated to take a couple of week.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Tito mentioned the moon voyage was first mentioned with SpaceX a couple of 12 months in the past when he was on a tour of its services. “The question came up, would I like to go back and fly in space?” Tito mentioned, including: “Well, I certainly don’t want to go back to the space station. I don’t even want to orbit the Earth. And then I thought about it and I said I would be interested in going to the moon … I looked over to Akiko and we kind of had a little eye contact and she goes, ‘Yeah, me too.’ And that’s how it all began.”

Tito, a billionaire businessman and former rocket engineer, turned the primary paying passenger in area when he traveled to the ISS quickly after the orbital outpost went into operation round 250 miles above Earth, with the round-trip ticket reportedly costing him $20 million. Neither SpaceX nor Tito have revealed the price of a ticket for the moon journey, however you may wager it’ll be significantly greater than what he paid for the ISS tour.

Dates for the moon tourism flights have but to be introduced as SpaceX first wants to check the Starship rocket that may go there. The rocket’s maiden flight has confronted a number of delays however may happen subsequent month.

Space tourism is ready to turn out to be a rising trade as area businesses and personal spaceflight firms have a look at varied methods to fund their work. NASA earlier this 12 months organized its first area tourism journey to the ISS, whereas final 12 months SpaceX despatched 4 non-professional astronauts on a three-day journey in near-Earth orbit aboard a specifically constructed Crew Dragon capsule.

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