SpaceX to fly 2 paying customers to the moon next year

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he's planning a private space mission, using a SpaceX rocket to transport two paying passengers around the moon.

"I think this will be a very exciting mission," Musk said Monday, during a teleconference with journalists.

Musk said SpaceX was approached by "two private individuals" who know one another, but whom he did not identify.

They would be launched from the historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center late next year on SpaceX's Dragon 2 vehicle on a Falcon Heavy rocket. That's the same launch pad used by NASA for Apollo missions to the moon, as well as many space shuttle missions, including the last one. SpaceX flew its Falcon 9 from the KSC pad for the first time earlier this month.

"They are entering this with their eyes open, knowing there is some risk," Musk said.

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Musk said the flight would be on an autonomous spacecraft that needs no specially trained astronauts onboard, although the two paying travelers would undergo "extensive training before going on the mission."

"Dragon is designed to be an autonomous vehicle," Musk said, noting that other versions of Dragon currently do cargo missions to the International Space Station with no one aboard.

Dale Ketcham, chief of strategic alliances for Space Florida, said Musk's announcement was somewhat of a surprise in the space community.

"I do think most of us didn't see it coming, but maybe we should have," Ketcham said, referring to Musk's reputation for out-of-the-box thinking and actions.

Ketcham called Musk's announcement "very exciting," and said it will help drive competition among NASA and commercial space companies that could lead to an accelerated timeline for space exploration.

Ketcham compared this to the competition between the United States and the then-Soviet Union to land humans on the moon, which NASA accomplished in 1969, with Apollo 11.

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Musk would not discuss what the passengers would be paying for the around-the-moon flight, saying only that this mission would cost more than a SpaceX resupply mission to the space station.

Musk said the weeklong mission around the moon would involve a trip of 300,000 to 400,000 miles.

He described the flight path as taking “a long loop around the moon,” and getting close to the lunar surface, but not landing, before returning to Earth.

“It would skim the surface of the moon,” is how Musk described it.

Musk, who is chief executive officer of SpaceX, said the mission would need to be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

He said the communications system of the Dragon spacecraft would need to be modified to accommodate deep-space communications.

SpaceX provided additional details on its website, noting that the two passengers "have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. 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."

SpaceX said it plans "to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year" for the space travelers.

"Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest, and we expect more to follow," SpaceX said. "Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results."

SpaceX said this mission "presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years, and they will travel faster and farther into the solar system than any before them."

Space X did not quantify those statements. NASA's Apollo program astronauts also orbited the moon in the late-1960s and early-1970s.

Ketcham said he believes SpaceX may have been referring to a flight path that would take the travelers farther past the moon than the Apollo astronauts, before returning to Earth.

Musk would not release more information on the prospective space travelers, including their genders. All he would say is that "it's nobody from Hollywood."

Musk said this won't be a one-time event.

"We would expect to do more than one mission" of this type, Musk said, potentially one or two a year, and they could be "a driver of revenue" for SpaceX.

"By also flying privately crewed missions, which NASA has encouraged, long-term costs to the government decline and more flight reliability history is gained, benefiting both government and private missions," SpaceX said in its statement.

Musk emphasized, however, that "NASA would have priority" if it decided to do a lunar orbit mission with astronauts first.

NASA issues a statement late Monday in response to Musk's announcement that said in part: “NASA commends its industry partners for reaching higher. For more than a decade, NASA has invested in private industry to develop capabilities for the American people and seed commercial innovation to advance humanity's future in space."

In its statement, SpaceX said: "We would like to thank NASA, without whom this would not be possible. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which provided most of the funding for Dragon 2 development, is a key enabler for this mission. In addition, this will make use of the Falcon Heavy rocket, which was developed with internal SpaceX funding."

Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch its first test flight this summer. It would be the second-most-powerful vehicle to reach orbit after the Saturn V moon rocket. At 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust, Falcon Heavy is two-thirds the thrust of Saturn V and more than double the thrust of the next largest launch vehicle currently flying, SpaceX said.

Later this year, as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX said it plans to launch its Dragon 2 or "Crew Dragon" spacecraft to the International Space Station.

The first demonstration mission will be in "automatic mode," without people on board, SpaceX said.

A subsequent mission with crew is targeting the second quarter of 2018. The company is currently contracted to perform an average of our Dragon missions a year to the station, three carrying cargo and one crew.

SpaceX said the upcoming missions will represent "an important milestone as we work towards our ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars."

Musk's announcement came after about 18 hours of speculation on social media about what he would say, after he tweeted on Sunday night to look for a "SpaceX announcement" on Monday afternoon. He followed that up after his teleconference with a Twitter message saying: "Fly me to the moon ... OK" and a link to the SpaceX announcement.

Follow Dave Berman on Twitter: @bydaveberman