Dennis Tito, the first space tourist in history, said on Wednesday that he intends to participate with his wife in the future mission around the moon organized by the American company SpaceX. The American entrepreneur, who was the first earthling to pay for his own ticket to space in 2001, explained to reporters that what motivated him to innovate was his passion.space and the possibilities it offers to mankind“.
The week-long mission, in which Dennis Tito and his wife Akiko will participate, will fly 200 km from the surface of the Moon before returning to Earth. This will happen when Elon Musk completes the prototype of his Starship spacecraft and makes the already planned first commercial flight with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.
Of the 12 seats available, the Tito couple booked two, unlike Yusaku Maezawa, who booked the entire flight organized by SpaceX. Dennis Tito, 82, did not say how much he was paid for the trip with Akiko, but in 2001 he paid $20 million to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian rocket, ushering in the era of space tourism. .
Space tourism, a booming industry
SpaceX has not yet announced when it will begin commercial space missions on Starship, a rocket that Elon Musk has said he wants to use to one day allow humans to settle on Mars. NASA, for its part, decided to bet on Starship to become the lander used as part of its Artemis program to return to the Moon.
If in September 2021 SpaceX has already sent several civilians as space “tourists”, then the American company is not the only one in this game. Blue Origin and its New Shepard rocket, Virgin Galactic and its SpaceShipTwo or even Axiom Space commissioned by the American Space Agency; offers to let off the ground gradually blossom, always at exorbitant prices. Count from $450,000 (approx. €462,000) for the cheapest seat to $55 million (approx. €56 million) for a week on the ISS thanks to Axiom Space (an additional $35,000 per day required for access to vital equipment provided by the ISS). such as sanitation and electricity).
Source: Le Figaro
