SpaceX, the rocket company owed by Elon Musk, wants to send tourists around the moon and back to Earth before the end of 2018. The passengers would be the first humans to venture that far into space since the last of NASA’s Apollo moon landings in 1972. NASA is working on a rocket, the Space Launch System, and a capsule, Orion, that would be capable of taking astronauts to deep space once again.
Mr. Musk made the announcement on Monday in a telephone news conference. He said two private individuals approached the company to see if SpaceX would be willing to send them on a weeklong cruise, which would fly past the surface of the moon and continue outward before gravity turned the spacecraft around and brought it back to Earth for a landing.
The two people would spend about a week inside one of SpaceX’s Dragon 2 capsules, launched on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The spacecraft would be automated, but the travelers would undergo training for emergencies. The Falcon Heavy itself has a list price of $90 million so the trip will be quite costly.
This month, NASA announced it is looking at the possibility of putting astronauts on the first flight, but officials say that would probably delay the launch to 2019.
When Mr. Musk announced the Falcon Heavy in 2011, he said it would fly in 2013. The maiden flight is now scheduled for this summer. SpaceX has a contract to take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station using the Dragon 2 capsule launched on the Falcon 9 rocket. That program has also encountered delays.
