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SpaceX Plans to Send People to the Moon in 2018—Get the Facts
The proposed mission would see two private citizens make a loop around the moon, but the company has a few technical hurdles to clear first.
In a surprising and somewhat secretive press briefing, Elon Musk announced today that his company SpaceX intends to fly two paying passengers to the moon by late 2018. The pair reportedly approached SpaceX with the idea and have paid the company a “significant deposit.”
As envisioned, the mission would lift off from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida—the same launch pad from which the Apollo missions blasted off more than four decades ago, delivering astronauts into lunar orbit and onto the moon’s surface. The SpaceX passengers wouldn’t walk on the moon, though; the trip would slingshot them around the moon before returning to Earth.
“This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space
