(CBS) — SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk said today the company plans to send two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year.
Musk told reporters the two unidentified individuals will be launched aboard a Dragon 2 capsule atop a heavy-lift version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule and its passengers will be launched on a so-called “free return” trajectory, sailing out into deep space beyond the moon before looping back for a direct return to Earth. The flight is expect to last about a week.
“Fly me to the moon …” Musk tweeted Monday, along with a statement about the company’s plans.
“Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration,” the statement said. “We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.
The Dragon 2 spacecraft is currently under development for NASA to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX plans to launch an initial unpiloted test flight late this year, with the first flight of NASA astronauts expected later in 2018. The Falcon 9 Heavy has not yet flown; its initial test flight is planned for sometime this summer.
The Dragon 2 capsule that will be used for the moon mission will be equipped with a more capable communications system, but Musk said it will be an essentially stock version of the spacecraft. He said the passengers will be paying roughly the same amount as previous tourists have spent to visit the space station. That would be somewhere between $50 million and $80 million.
Musk said if NASA wants to fly a similar moon mission, the agency would have priority. But barring that, the two unidentified private citizens will be the first humans to venture below low-Earth orbit since the Apollo moon program.
