SpaceX plans to announce two new space tourists to fly aboard the Starship rocket: Dennis Tito, the world’s first space tourist in 2001, and his wife, Akiko.
Couple paid an undisclosed amount to fly around the Moon starship Once the vehicle is complete. They will travel along with 10 other unidentified passengers on a nearly week-long journey. The journey does not include landing on the lunar surface and it is not clear whether other passengers have yet been selected.
It may be a while before the mission starts and there is still no target date. It’s gonna be starshipFourth passenger mission organized after SpaceX Uses vehicle to land Astronaut Feather Moon For NASA and the following trips by other customers who have purchased a ride on the ship.
Then there’s the fact that Starship hasn’t traveled to space yet. SpaceX still needs to send an uncrewed version of the vehicle into orbit, the chief executive said. Elon Musk Said that could happen in early November. The company must also show that it can refuel the Starship while space So that it can reach the vicinity of the Moon, and it needs life-support systems and other hardware necessary to keep humans alive.
“I know this rocket will be tested back and forth; There will be hundreds of flights before we can take off,” Tito said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We’re not going to fly next year. It’s going to wait.”
After a brief stint working as a scientist at NASA jet propulsion laboratoryTito co-founded the investment-management firm Wilshire Associates in 1972. He was the first civilian space tourist to travel. International Space Station, paid $20 million (about Rs 1,64,500 crore) to buy a seat on Russia’s Soyuz rocket for a week’s stay. Tito said that, at the time, NASA was not happy with his visit.
Since their flight, space tourism has expanded greatly, and NASA has opened the ISS to more commercial endeavors. About a dozen tourists have flown from there with the help of a company named Space Adventures. The first all-civilian crew visited the space station in April, coordinated by a company called Axiom.
Paying customers are also able to get a brief taste of the space by purchasing tickets on suborbital vehicles from companies like Jeff Bezos. blue original and Virgin Galactic, which sends passengers to the edge of space and back.
SpaceX has also entered the space-tourism market. In 2021, an all-civilian crew sponsored by billionaire Jared Isaacman flew into orbit for three days aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, called Inspiration 4.
‘on the moon’
Tito’s plan came about when he visited SpaceX in June 2021, when a friend of his wife arranged a meeting with company personnel. He was asked if he wanted to go to space again, either to visit the space station or on a quick trip to orbit.
“No, I want to go to the moon,” Tito recalled. “And then I looked at Akiko when I said so, and she said ‘Me too.’ And that’s how it started.”
Dennis Tito is 82 years old, which could make him the oldest person to orbit and go into deep space. He admitted that his focus is on staying fit while waiting for Starship to develop. He and his wife, who is 57, are both pilots, while Dennis says he holds four American lifting records for an 80-year-old man.
“Whatever will happen, it will happen. It will take a certain amount of time, but it will be ready, and when it is ready it will be safe,” Tito said. “It’s more limited by the amount of time I have on this planet.”
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