The world’s first space tourist wants to go back — only this time, he’s signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship.
Well-heeled customers are sampling briefer tastes of space with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket company. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic expects to take paying passengers next year.
Starship has yet to launch atop a Super Heavy booster from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. At 394 feet and 17 million pounds of liftoff thrust, it's the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. NASA already has contracted for a Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in 2025 or so, in the first lunar touchdown since Apollo.
Tito said the couple's contract with SpaceX, signed in August 2021 and announced Wednesday, includes an option for a flight within five years from now. Tito would be 87 by then and he wanted an out in case his health falters.Tito's wife, 57, said she needed no persuading. The Los Angeles residents are both pilots and understand the risks. They share Musk's vision of a spacefaring future and believe a married couple flying together to the moon will inspire others to do the same.
Tito, who sold his investment company Wilshire Associates almost two years ago, said he doesn't feel guilty splurging on spaceflight versus spending the money here on Earth.Tito expects he'll also shatter preconceived notions about age, much as John Glenn's space shuttle flight did in 1998. The first American to orbit the Earth still holds the record as the oldest person in orbit.
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82-year-old retired astronaut to become 1st space touristThe world's first space tourist wants to go back - only this time, he's signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk's Starship.
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82-year-old retired astronaut to become 1st space touristThe world's first space tourist wants to go back - only this time, he's signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk's Starship.
Weiterlesen »
82-year-old retired astronaut to become 1st space touristThe world's first space tourist wants to go back - only this time, he's signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk's Starship.
Weiterlesen »
World's 1st space tourist signs up for flight around moonThe world’s first space tourist has signed up to spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship.
Weiterlesen »
82-year-old retired astronaut to become 1st space touristThe world's first space tourist wants to go back - only this time, he's signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk's Starship.
Weiterlesen »
World's 1st space tourist signs up for flight around moonThe world's first space tourist wants to go back — only this time, he’s signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship.
Weiterlesen »