In a recent interview, billionaire Dennis Tito, a one-time Jet Propulsion Lab scientist-turned-investment banker who bought the first private ride in 2001 to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, said he did not think he had ever get another chance to return to space or reach us ultimate dream which is to fly to the moon as he did not think any individual would have that capability.
Now, the world's first-ever private space tourist is back, a Futurism report said, and this time, he is hitching a ride to the moon with his wife, Akiko Tito, aboard a SpaceX Starship.
Dennis Tito, a US millionaire who previously paid his way to the International Space Station in 2001, and his wife, Akiko, plan to take a lunar expedition that will last roughly a week, according to SpaceX https://t.co/g5ODffO6NG
— CNN (@CNN) October 13, 2022
However, Tito's mind changed upon visiting the SpaceX headquarters with Akiko in 2021. After their tour, the couple started to discuss a lunar trip.
The New Yorker billionaire said he and his wife looked at each other and knew "right away." Recalling that time, Akiko said, "I said yes, I want to go."
Starship Not Ready Until 2025
The couple announced early this week via SpaceX that they had purchased two of the dozen seats aboard one of the planned "circumlunar flights" scheduled for later this decade, an Ars Technica report specified.
As this report specified, the Tito couple's voyage hinges on SpaceX developing further the Starship's capabilities as SpaceX gets ready to make its first orbital test flights of the ultra-heavy-lift launch vehicle "sometime in the very near future."
At his age of 82 years old, Tito is at an elevated risk of complications as the wait continues, although as this said report indicates, William Shatner, the Star Trek icon, was 90 years old when he took a flight into the edge of space through Blue Origin.
SpaceX has already announced its Starship will not be ready for crewed circumlunar flights until at least 2025, although the billionaire said he does not mind waiting.
He said his timeframe is that they are willing to wait for as long as they are healthy. Tito added they cannot force the timeline, continuing, "it will happen when it happens."
The SpaceX Mission
According to a CNN report, this mission will come only after SpaceX fulfills its commitment "to launch billionaire payments processing CEO Jared Isaacman" on the first-ever commercial human spaceflight mission on Starship.
Starship is a rocket and spacecraft system still being developed at SpaceX facilities in South Texas. More so, this spacecraft is currently waiting for approval from federal regulators to make its first-ever uncrewed orbital test flight.
The Elon Musk-owned company will also perform its first trip around the moon for billionaire fashion magnate Yusaku Maezawa, a mission announced before this trip Tito.
Meanwhile, during a news conference yesterday afternoon, Tito said the only difference between his mission and Maezawa's would be that he and his wife purchased only individual seats on the mission, while Maezawa purchased a whole flight for himself a group of artists.
Describing the mission he is involved in, Tito said it is now open for ten other individuals to sign up. He added he doesn't expect this flight to launch in the near future as he is hoping that SpaceX will launch hundreds of flights, including satellite launches, before his and his wife's flight.
Report about Tito's return to space is shown on CBS Mornings' YouTube video Below:
RELATED ARTICLE : Space X Falcon 9 to Launch Batch 54 Starlink Satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Check out more news and information on SpaceX in Science Times.
