Earth’s original space tourist, Dennis Tito, now in his eighties, is planning to return to space and fly around the Moon with Elon Musk’s Starship.
Tito and his wife Akiko have reserved two of the 12 seats on what is due to be Starship’s second commercial flight around the Moon later this decade.
The entrepreneur became the first tourist in space back in 2001 when he bought a passage to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket.
Dennis Tito was world’s first commercial astronaut to visit the @space_station. He will now be among the first to fly on Starship
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2022
According to Ars Technica, a visit to SpaceX’s California headquarters persuaded the Titos that their dream to go to the Moon could finally become a reality.
SpaceX’s moonflights will follow trajectories similar to NASA’s Artemis missions, going around the moon but not landing. The trip will last about a week.
The elderly space tourist pioneer has paid an undisclosed sum for the privilege of returning to space, and keeps himself fit by bodybuilding according to Bloomberg.
He will however be beaten onto a Starship voyage by billionaire Jared Isaacman on the Polaris III trip to low orbit, and by Japanese fashion retailer Yusaku Maezawa who is funding eight artists to join him on ‘dearMoon’, SpaceX’s first circumlunar flight.
