Space tourists launch new era of exploration with privately funded orbit of the moon

TWO mystery paying customers will take a tourist trip around the moon next year in the first privately funded flight beyond the International Space Station.

The journey with SpaceX will use a spaceship under development for Nasa astronauts.

“Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration,” SpaceX said in statement.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive, said the two unnamed space tourists had already paid a large deposit for the trip and will undergo training and fitness tests later this year.

The cost of the trip has not been re- vealed, but the Russian government has previously charged space tourists around $20 million (£16 million) for a trip to the International Space Station.

The flight, using a Dragon Crew capsule and a Falcon Heavy rocket, would last about a week. The spaceship would circle the moon, skimming the lunar surface, and then travel deeper into space, up to 400,000 miles away, before returning to Earth. “Next year is going to be a big year for carrying people to the space station and hopefully beyond,” Musk said

He would only say of the two paying customers that they know each other and that it is “nobody from Hollywood”.

“We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong inter- est, and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results,” the SpaceX statement said.

The Dragon Crew capsule has not yet flown in space. Neither has a Falcon Heavy rocket, which is essentially a Falcon 9 rocket with two strap-on boosters, according to Mr Musk. He said there will be ample time to test them before the moon mission.

The announcement came as it is widely expected Nasa will refocus on a manned mission around the moon, possibly in 2018, following pressure from the Trump administration.

The Obama administration had encouraged the space agency to explore the feasability of a manned Mars mission in the 2020s.