Elon Musk has had quite a rough time lately. He got himself into a Twitter feud, made some off-the-cuff remarks about taking Tesla private, has lost a good amount of his management staff, and took some heat for smoking a join on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The serial entrepreneur has become a one-man meme machine for the Internet. But to top it off, he thinks he ready to send someone into space.
Space travel is no longer a thing of the future, thanks to Elon Musk. Previously, Musk, and his company SpaceX, announced that they would be sending two tourists around the moon. However, plans for the trip seemed delayed. This past Friday, Musk confirmed that SpaceX had signed its first passenger for a flight around the moon that will take place later this year. Although the name of the individual will not be announced until September 17th, Musk revealed that the individual is from Japan.
“SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle—an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Find out who’s flying and why on Monday, September 17,” SpaceX Tweeted
At this time, the price for the flight is also not known. It is likely that the trip will cost more than $20 million, meaning few will even be allowed to entertain the idea.
The official announcement by Musk marks the first tourist visit to outer space in more than 17 years. At that time, a handful of tourists visited the International Space Station for a cost of more than $20 million. As a whole, the trip marks a remarkable step forward for the commercializing of space travel.
It should be noted this is not the first time SpaceX has sold tickets to space. Back in 2017, the company announced a couple of would-be space travelers had purchased tickets to the moon (and back, hopefully), which was scheduled for a 2018 launch. That mission has obviously not happened.
