SpaceX to name first passenger to moon

Los Angeles : SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space transportation company, is all set to name the first private passenger who will take a trip around the moon aboard its forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, taking the race to commercialise space travel to new heights. SpaceX said it will name the first passenger to travel to the moon since the United States’ Apollo missions ended in 1972 at an event at the company’s headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

In moves typical of his publicity-seeking style, Musk, who is also the billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, has already teased a few tantalizing details about the trip and the passenger’s identity, but left major questions unanswered. While the Big Falcon Rocket has not been built yet, Musk has said he wants the rocket to be ready for an unpiloted trip to Mars in 2022, with a crewed flight in 2024, though his ambitious production targets have been known to slip. It was unclear whether SpaceX plans a lunar orbit mission or a loop around the moon. Also unknown is how much the amateur astronaut will pay for the trip.