SpaceX to announce first tourist to take journey around the moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (FOX 35 NEWS) - Suspense is building as to who will be the first space tourist to circle the moon.
At Titusville’s Space View Park, Zachary Newman said it won't be him. “Probably not!” he laughed, “not because of any reason in particular, probably just a large amount of cowardice!”
SpaceX is getting ready to announce who the lucky passenger will be. When someone asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk who it might be, Musk tweeted back an emoji of the Japanese flag. That got people thinking it could be video game designer and space enthusiast Hideo Kojima or businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who's trained with astronauts. Whoever it turns out to be, space expert Dale Ketcham said it's going to be interesting.
“It's another exciting for all of us to understand what Elon's up to,” Ketcham said, “clearly, he has a reputation for coming forward with great ideas, some of them rather grandiose. But at the end of the day, the man delivers.”
The tourist will be flying with the crew of the new Big Falcon Rocket that's planned to launch in 2021. Newman and Ketcham say this will further human progress.
“I do feel it would encourage more adventurous types than me to get on that ship and circle the moon and bring back some interesting stories and encourage more travel into space,” Newman said.
“All of this is good,” Ketcham said, “it drives human activity in space, and Florida's in a good position to capitalize on a great deal of that, so we're excited.”
Only seven tourists have gone into space since 2001. The big announcement comes Monday.