'Moon tourists' sign up for SpaceX flight
Two private citizens likely to be paying millions for chance to fly around the moon

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens have paid for a flight around the moon.
Musk said the mission is planned for "late 2018" and that the pair "have already paid a significant deposit".
He added: "Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years."
The flight will take about a week to complete and will fly around the moon without touching down on its surface.
"[It] would rely on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, the massive engine that the company hopes to test for the first time this summer, and a Dragon 2 capsule," The Guardian reports.
The names of the first two travellers have not been released, says CNN, but they are likely to be "paying millions for the adventure".
Musk said the cost of the flight would be "comparable" to sending an astronaut to the International Space Station, for which Russia's space agency Roscosmos charges Nasa around $70m (£56m).
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
June 22 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include a SpaceX flight, Bibi pulling Donald Trump toward war, and an ICE agent looking like a bank robber
-
5 bunker-busting cartoons about the Israel-Iran war
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on Iran waiting for Pete Hegseth to leak war plans and Donald Trump's wish for a Nobel prize
-
Malaysia's delicious food and glorious beaches
The Week Recommends From 'colourful' George Town to the 'jungled interior' of Langkawi, Malaysia is incredibly diverse
-
Another Starship blast sets back Musk's Mars hopes
Speed Read Nobody was killed in the explosion, which occurred in south Texas
-
What Elon Musk's Grok AI controversy reveals about chatbots
In the Spotlight The spread of misinformation is a reminder of how imperfect chatbots really are
-
Elon Musk's SpaceX has created a new city in Texas
Under The Radar Starbase is home to SpaceX's rocket launch site
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Musk vs. Altman: The fight over OpenAI
Feature Elon Musk has launched a $97.4 billion takeover bid for OpenAI
-
Elon Musk's DOGE website has gotten off to a bad start
In the Spotlight The site was reportedly able to be edited by anyone when it first came online
-
What Trump's 'tech bros' want
The Explainer Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos had 'prime seats' at the president's inauguration. What are they looking to gain from Trump 2.0?
-
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the billionaire space race
The Explainer Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon