As revealed on Feb. 27, SpaceX informed the public that they will be sending their most-awaited Falcon Heavy to the moon next year. As if that's not enough to entice the space enthusiasts, the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, also shared that two civilians who already paid for the private moon viewing shall be on board the Falcon Heavy.
In an article in The Guardian, it was stated that Elon Musk kept the identities of the two civilians anonymous. Musk also declined to share how much the two had paid but instead, he revealed that the two civilians were really sincere in their mission to visit the outer space. Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst with Teal Group, also imparted that having ordinary citizens go out of the world is indeed filled with risks. In line with this, SpaceX also announced that they will be monitoring the health of the two civilians and will train them in the latter part of this year.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also planning a lunar mission and SpaceX showed its support through stating that should NASA decided to go first, they can move their flight on a later date. Musk also added that since SpaceX's mission will carry civilians, they will have to work on a license from the Federal Aviation Administration first.
As the first space flight for civilians, SpaceX will mark a great history in opening the doors to space tourism. According to an article in Bloomberg, Musk shared that although they are happy for this future for SpaceX, the mission is not as easy as what it seems. Critics also emphasized that the Falcon Heavy which will carry the two civilians to the moon was never tested before which increases the risks further. Speaking of space flight prices, Musk also formerly imparted that passengers for a trip to Mars would cost around USD 200,000. With this in mind, the price paid by the two civilians might be lower since the distance of the moon from Earth is pretty shorter.
It seems that the future of companies like SpaceX and government agencies like NASA are about to go beyond Earth as several heads of states already showed their support for more space explorations starting this year. Recently, USA's Donald Trump already shared his support that under his term, he's ready to see more mysteries of the space. The United Kingdom government also imparted that it will soon have a law on space explorations for medical and scientific researches.
