Dennis Tito, the first space tourist in history, and his wife Akiko have signed up to ride the Starship rocket of billionaire Elon Musk’s space exploration company around the moon.In 2001, on Russia’s Soyuz TM-32 mission, engineer-turned-financial-analyst Tito, 82, became the first private person to pay for a journey to space. He spent nearly eight days on the International Space Station.
During the nearly seven-day SpaceX mission, the rocket will pass within 200 kilometres of the moon without touching down.The initial crew members for Starship’s second commercial lunar orbital mission have been revealed as Tito and his wife.The launch date for Starship, the centrepiece of Tesla CEO Musk’s goal to transport people and goods to the moon and Mars, has not been disclosed by SpaceX. The richest man in the world has stated that he hopes to launch the rocket into orbit for the first time as early as next month.
