[ad_1]
Someone has booked a trip around the moon on a SpaceX rocket, and details, including the passenger's identity, are to be unveiled Monday night at an event at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles.
SpaceX is intended to broadcast the announcement from 9pm Eastern Time.
The mysterious passenger must fly a rocket still under construction called B.F.R. This expensive journey – which would cost at least tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars – would follow a looped course around the moon without landing, similar to the NASA astronaut's trip to the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 But when this flight can occur is uncertain.
The founder of the company, Elon Musk, spoke of hope that test flights from the upper deck of the spacecraft – where passengers would eventually roll – could begin next year and that the rocket could make an unmanned flight to Mars. like 2022.
SpaceX's technological achievements are significant, including the landing, recovery and reuse of rocket boosters that have generally been abandoned after a single flight. But Musk's forecast of SpaceX's deadlines has generally been too optimistic.
But when one of the divers, Vernon Unsworth, decried the effort, Mr. Musk suggested, without proof, that Mr. Unsworth was a pedophile. On Monday, Mr Unsworth announced that he was suing Mr Musk for defamation.
In comparison, SpaceX is an oasis of calm that launches satellites and spacecraft without incident for most of the year.
It's actually the second time that SpaceX has announced that it would send tourists to the moon and back.
With the modernization of electronics leading to smaller satellites and the increased lifting power of the new versions of SpaceX's Falcon 9 combat rocket, the Falcon Heavy market is shrinking. (The Heavy has not yet made a second flight, even though SpaceX has listed the US Air Force and satellite companies as future customers.) Musk said in February that SpaceX would not pay for it. the necessary efforts for human passengers.
At the same time, SpaceX began work on its next-generation B.F.R. rocket, more powerful than the Saturn 5 used by NASA for Apollo missions. The rocket is intended to replace both the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy and is designed to carry 100 people on Mars. (The "B" stands for "big", the "R" stands for "rocket." In public, Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, declares his full name "Big Falcon Rocket." Mr. Musk, as well as the company's press releases remain ambiguous about what the "F" means.)
Although the Falcon Heavy had been ready for Moon tourists, the development of the SpaceX capsule to take astronauts into space, which would have been necessary for a Falcon Heavy trip, was also delayed. The first flight of this The spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts to the international space station is now scheduled for next year, and monitoring agencies within the government say that further delays are possible.
Since space shuttle shuttles were withdrawn in 2011, NASA was counting on Russia to transport its astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but that contract ended in November 2019.
B.F.R. is much more ambitious than the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy – larger, more powerful and fully reusable – and therefore more likely to encounter technological problems and the design of B.F.R. evolves again.
Two years ago, Mr. Musk described a gigantic 40-foot-diameter rocket, then known as interplanetary transport, before unveiling a model B.F.R. 30 feet wide.
The image in the SpaceX tweet shows bigger fins on the B.F.R. than what had been seen previously, giving it an appearance more reminiscent of NASA's retired space shuttles.
On Twitter, Musk was asked if there was a new version of the B.F.R.
"Yes," he replied simply.
It is unclear whether the passenger is one of the two who filed a deposit last year or whether SpaceX would sell additional seats on the spacious vehicle.
Until now, seven people have paid for a trip in space, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket for short stays at the International Space Station. (One person, Charles Simonyi, made two trips.)
No tourists have been in orbit since 2009. Other companies, including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin seeks to sell sub-orbital journeys – routes that cross the border in space – before descending, offering a few minutes of weightlessness.
Source link
