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He’s signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship, the world’s first space tourist who wants to go back only this time.

To the International Space Station it’s a chance to relive the joy of his trip, for Dennis Tito, 82, now that he’s retired with time on his hands. To the edge of space or repeating what he did 21 years ago he isn’t interested in hopping on a 10-minute flight. “Been there, done that.”

His weeklong moonshot, within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the lunar far side, its date to be determined and years in the future will bring him. To shell out big bucks for the ride his wife, Akiko, and 10 others willing, he’ll have company.

His Russian station flight cost $20 million; Tito won’t say how much he’s paying. Ahead for Starship the couple recognize there’s a lot of testing and development still, a shiny, bullet-shaped behemoth that’s yet to even attempt to reach space.

Tito said in an interview this week with The Associated Press “To complete this vehicle We have to keep healthy for as many years as it’s going to take for SpaceX”. “Without doing any good exercise I might be sitting in a rocking chair, if it wasn’t for this mission”. 

For a flight around the moon Tito is actually the second billionaire to make a Starship reservation. 

He was buying an entire flight so he could take eight or so others with him, preferably artists, Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa announced in 2018. 

To the space station, from Kazakhstan atop Russian rockets 20 years apart, the two men both flew.

To pay his own way to space and antagonize NASA in the process Tito kicked off space tourism in 2001, becoming the first person. while the station was being built the U.S. space agency didn’t want a sightseer hanging around. 

What could be a lucrative 21st century industry these trips are the beginning. To build suborbital vehicles and orbital cities within the next two decades there are already several space tourism companies planning. 

By believing that the space tourism industry is on the verge of taking off these companies have invested millions.

Space for private citizens could be worth billions of dollars in 1997, NASA published a report concluding that selling trips. These findings, and projects that space tourism could be a $10 billion per year industry within the next two decades, a Japanese report will be supported.

Just a year ago, Maezawa with the help of the U.S.-based Space Adventures, and the Russian Space Agency needed the cash, so the station through the 2000s launched a string of wealthy clients.

With Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company Well-heeled customers are sampling briefer tastes of space. To take paying passengers next year Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic expects.

From the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border, Starship has yet to launch atop a Super Heavy booster. 

It’s the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, at 394 feet (120 meters) and 17 million pounds (7.7 million kilograms) of liftoff thrust. 

In the first lunar touchdown since Apollo, NASA already has contracted for a Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in 2025. 

For a flight within five years from now Tito said the couple’s contract with SpaceX, signed in August 2021, includes an option. By then Tito would be 87 and he wanted an out in case his health falters.

He said “But if I stayed in good health, I’d wait 10 years”.

Tito’s wife, 57, said she needed no persuading. Both pilots and understand the risks are the Los Angeles residents. To do the same to the moon will inspire others. Of a spacefaring future they share Musk’s vision and believe in a married couple flying together.

Almost two years ago Tito, who sold his investment company Wilshire Associates, said he doesn’t feel guilty splurging on spaceflight versus spending the money here on Earth.

He said “It’s time to reap the rewards of all the hard work and thus we’re retired”.

About age, much as John Glenn’s space shuttle flight did in 1998, Tito expects he’ll also shatter preconceived notions. As the oldest person in orbit, the first American to orbit the Earth still holds the record.

Tito said “He was only 77. He was just a young man”. “Being 10 years older than him I might end up,”

From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education the Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support. For all the content the AP is solely responsible.

Source:- https://coinworldlive.com/worlds-1st-space-tourist-signs-up-for-flight-around-moon/

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