A former space tourist and his wife are expected to take a flight aboard SpaceX’s upcoming reusable rocket, heading to the moon and back over a week-long period.
SpaceX will take engineer-turned-entrepreneur Dennis Tito and his wife Akiki around the moon in the Starship rocket, said the company on Wednesday.
Tito, 82, was the world’s first private individual to fund his own trip to space, aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 mission in 2001. Tito and the crew spent just over a week at the International Space Station (ISS).
The journey aboard SpaceX’s Starship is expected to take around a week, and will simply fly around the moon rather than landing on its surface.
“Dennis and Akiko Tito are the first two crewmembers announced on Starship’s second commercial spaceflight around the Moon. This will be Dennis’ second mission to space after becoming the first commercial astronaut to visit the International Space Station in 2001, and Akiko will be among the first women to fly around the Moon on a Starship,” said SpaceX in a statement.
“The Titos joined the mission to contribute to SpaceX’s long-term goal to advance human spaceflight and help make life multiplanetary,” added SpaceX.
Starship full stack: SpaceX
Over the course of a week, Starship and the crew will travel to the Moon, fly within 200 km of the Moon’s surface, and complete a full journey around the Moon before safely returning to Earth. This mission is expected to launch after the Polaris Program’s first flight of Starship and dearMoon.
SpaceX Says Both Starship and Falcon 9 to Launch 2nd-Gen Starlinks https://t.co/TAYzXmnJnS
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 23, 2022
SpaceX hasn’t yet announced a date for the launch of the Starship mission, though the company eventually plans to use the reusable ship for trips to the moon and to Mars.
While initial flights for Starship have been delayed throughout the year, SpaceX Head Elon Musk said a launch of the reusable spacecraft is “highly likely” to occur in November.
On its first orbital flight, SpaceX effectively plans to “catch” the Starship’s booster.
SpaceX performed static fire tests of Starship’s Booster 7 a few weeks ago, caught in 900fps video in 8K resolution.
Last night, SpaceX stacked its Starship 24 and Booster 7 at the orbital launch pad at Starbase, as the company readies an orbital flight that is expected sometime in the next month or so.
Starship 24 and Booster 7 fully stacked on the orbital launch pad at Starbase pic.twitter.com/1VKn6juQor
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2022
