The first space traveler in history wants to return, but this time he’s booked a trip on Elon Musk’s Starship to orbit the moon.
Now that he is retired and has time on his hands, Dennis Tito, 82, has the opportunity to experience the excitement of his mission to the International Space Station. He has no interest in going back to what he did 21 years ago or taking a 10-minute flight to the edge of space. I’ve been there and done that.
He will be within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the lunar far side during his week-long moonshot, which will take place at a future date. His wife Akiko and ten other people who are willing to pay a significant sum of money for the ride will be with him.
Starship and its crew will visit the Moon over the course of a week, fly within 200 kilometers of its surface, and make a full orbit of the Moon before safely returning to Earth. After the maiden flights of Starship and dearMoon for the Polaris Program, this mission is anticipated to take off.
Although Tito won’t disclose his total payment, his flight to the Russian station cost $20 million.
Tito is the second billionaire to reserve a Starship for a trip around the moon. Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese fashion mogul, declared in 2018 that he was purchasing a whole airplane so that he could bring about eight other people.
As the first person to pay for his own space travel in 2001, Tito started the space tourism industry, upsetting NASA in the process. The American space agency did not want a tourist to be present while the space station was being constructed. However, the Russian Space Agency was short on funds and turned to American company Space Adventures to fly a number of wealthy passengers to the station.
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