SpaceX to fly passengers on trip around moon in 2018

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SpaceX announced Monday that it plans to send two private individuals around the Moon by the end of 2018, a highly ambitious flight that would mark the first human return to deep space in nearly 50 years. During a teleconference with reporters, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the two people would fly an approximately week-long mission in a “long loop” around the Moon, to about 400,000 miles from Earth, before returning home.

Musk said the company would launch its Dragon 2 spacecraft on top of a Falcon Heavy rocket and that the two passengers would be flying solo, without the assistance of professional astronauts. Dragon 2, he said, is designed as an autonomous vehicle. The paying customers would not be blind to the risks, he added. "I think they are entering this with their eyes open, knowing there is some risk here," Musk said. "They’re not naive. We’re going to do everything we can do to minimize our risk, but the risk is not zero."

Competition with NASA

The announcement comes shortly after NASA has revealed that it is considering launching a crew of two astronauts on the maiden flight of its Space Launch System rocket in 2019. This flight, Exploration Mission-1, would have a similar profile in that it would send the Orion spacecraft out past the Moon, in a free-return trajectory, before returning to Earth after about a week.

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Although SpaceX does considerable business with NASA through the agency's commercial crew and cargo vehicles, there is nonetheless a competition between the private company and the government agency when it comes to deep space exploration. NASA has maintained that while it has opened up low-Earth orbit to private companies, it should take the lead on the exploration of deep space. However the private space industry has criticized the agency for spending lavishly on the development of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, which account for more than $3 billion annually in NASA's budget.

During the call with reporters, Musk sought to distance his company from any competition with NASA. "I think we’re generally encouraging of anything that advances the course of space exploration," Musk said. "I think an SLS/Orion mission would be exciting as well. And I don’t know what their timetable is. But I’m not sure if we will be before or after, but I don’t think that’s the important thing. I think what matters is really the advancement of space exploration."

Indeed, Musk left the door open for NASA to undertake the mission with the Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 as a customer. "If NASA decides they want to do the first lunar orbit mission, obviously we would give them priority," Musk said.

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