Dennis Titusrecognized as the pioneer of space tourism after his trip to the International Space Station (ISS), he is planning another trip outside the Earth, this time to the Moon and in the company of his wife Akiko.
The 82-year-old American made history in 2001 when he became the first person to fund his own space mission, staying on board the ISS for just over a week. After 21 years, she has an ambitious new plan.
On Wednesday, October 12, SpaceX revealed via Twitter Tito’s plan for a flyby of the Moon. The mission will be the second privately funded trip to our natural satellite by Elon Musk’s company, as he also plans to send Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire businessman, on the same trip.
“The Titos joined the mission to contribute to SpaceX’s long-term goal of promoting human spaceflight and helping make life multiplanetary.”, communicated SpaceX.
Dennis Tito was the world’s first commercial astronaut to visit the @space_station. He will now be among the first to fly on Starship
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2022
Tito Mission Details
The lunar mission will involve 10 passengers, the others have yet to be named. They will fly around the Moon before returning to Earth in a trip expected to last around a week.According to the report published on the website of Digital Trends.
Dennis Titus He said the trip to the Moon was first discussed with SpaceX about a year ago when he was touring its facilities.
“The question arose, would I like to go back and fly in space? Well, I certainly don’t want to go back to the ISS. I don’t even want to orbit the Earth. And then I thought about it and said I’d be interested in going to the Moon… I looked at Akiko and we had a little eye contact and she said, ‘Yeah, me too.’ And that’s how it all started”.
Tito, a billionaire businessman and former rocket engineer, became the first paying passenger in space when he traveled to the ISS shortly after the orbital outpost became operational some 250 miles above Earth, and the ticket round trip reportedly cost him $20 million.
Neither SpaceX nor Tito have disclosed the cost of a ticket for the trip to the Moon, but it will be considerably more than what you paid for the excursion to the Space Station in 2001.