Musk gets first passenger for moon flight

SpaceX says in tweet that person’s identity will be revealed on Monday

Elon Musk’s rocket company signed up its first passenger for a flight around the moon, taking a giant leap toward commercialising space travel. The person’s identity will be revealed on Monday, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said in a tweet.

Asked whether he’d be the first passenger, Musk — who is also the CEO of Tesla Inc. — posted an emoji of a Japanese flag. Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are among the companies attempting to commercialise space travel.

SpaceX announced last year that it planned to send two unidentified private citizens on an around-the-moon mission in late 2018.

Neither the company nor Musk tweeted about the timing of the trip. In July, billionaire Branson said he hoped to hitch a ride on a Virgin spaceship ■ before the end of the year.

SpaceX earlier this month launched a commercial satellite from Florida that marked its 16th mission of 2018.

Its valuation has climbed to about $28 billion (Dh102.8 billion), making it the third most valuable venture-backed start-up in the US after Uber Technologies Inc and Airbnb. The company also has a contract to ferry American astronauts to the International Space Station.

AFP Billionaire innovator and founder of SpaceX Elon Musk below an image of the Big Falcon Rocket, a massive launch vehicle that will take two people on a flight around the moon in late 2018, at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Australia in 2017.