Sustainable Development

SpaceX Says It Will Send Two Extremely Wealthy People Around the Moon Next Year

by The Daily Eye Team March 1 2017, 2:26 pm Estimated Reading Time: 0 mins, 46 secs

Two space tourists are headed around the Moon and back in 2018, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who spoke to reporters in a highly anticipated press call on Monday. Amid Musk's characteristically flamboyant announcement came skepticism about whether this will actually happen, at least on such a tight timeline. His company has yet to launch any humans into space. Two private individuals, who are staying anonymous for now, "have already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission," said a release on the rocket manufacturer's website. The pair will be flying in the Dragon 2 capsule on top of the beefed-up Falcon Heavy rocket, which is the next step in SpaceX's Falcon series. It's launching its first test flight this summer, and it if works, it will be the most powerful vehicle to get into orbit after NASA's Saturn V, which brought humans to the Moon, according to SpaceX.

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