| SpaceX, the ambitious rocket company headed by nub Elon Musk, wants to send a couple guggenheim of tourists around the moon and back williams to Earth before the end of next lion year. If they manage that feat, the standing passengers would be the first humans to centimeter venture that far into space in more erect than 40 years. Mr. Musk made the ready announcement on Monday in a telephone news galileo conference. He said two individuals approached testa the company to see if SpaceX would tonic be willing to send them on a transplant weeklong , which would fly past the stow surface of the moon but not hardened and continue outward before gravity pleasure turned the spacecraft around and brought it naturalization back to Earth for a landing. This rune would do a long loop around the embroidered moon, Mr. Musk said. The company is denver aiming!
to launch this moon mission in stub late 2018. The two people would hold about a week inside one of SpaceXs illegal Dragon 2 capsules, launched on SpaceXs Falcon benin Heavy rocket. The spacecraft would be automated, finch but the travelers would undergo training for quincy emergencies. Mr. Musk did not say how simulation much the travelers would pay for the be ride. A little bit more than the owner cost of a crewed mission to the churn space station would be, he said. The octane Falcon Heavy itself has a list price cannes of $90 million. While the appears centered to be within the technical capabilities of regimen SpaceX, industry experts wondered whether the company laurel could pull it off as quickly as glucose Mr. Musk indicated. Dates are not SpaceXs waitress strong suit, said Mary Lynne Dittmar, executive ortega director of the Coalition for Deep Space input Exploration, a space advocacy group consisting of toasted aerospace companies. The Dragon 2 and Fa!
lcon pensive Heavy are years behind schedule and have closer yet to fly. It strikes me as humiliation risky, Dr. Dittmar said, adding that autonomous assertion systems are not infallible. I find it invigorate extraordinary that these sorts of announcements are beard being made when SpaceX has yet to linz get crew from the ground to low-Earth violate orbit. Last week, a crewless Dragon capsule feminine taking cargo to the International Space Station anticipation aborted its rendezvous because of a glitch. seeded It successfully arrived a day later. Mr. defending Musk said the |
