In a first, Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced today that it is planning to launch a private citizen around the moon aboard its monster rocket.
Aiming high for the moon, SpaceX announced on Twitter that it has already signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the moon on its new BFR (the Big Falcon Rocket) launch.
The tweet stated that on September 17, Monday it will reveal who is the lucky person and why are they doing this. As per the company, this step is significant since it will enable access for everyday people who dream about traveling to space.
SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle—an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Find out who’s flying and why on Monday, September 17. pic.twitter.com/64z4rygYhk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 14, 2018
The company also posted a render demonstrating the new version of BFR that was further confirmed by CEO Musk too. In reply to a tweet about the passenger, Musk tweeted a Japanese flag emoji, hinting that the person might be from Japan.
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2018
🇯🇵
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2018
The BFR is the giant rocket that SpaceX is developing in order to send humans to the moon and to our neighboring Red Planet, explained The Verge.
Moreover, according to Business Insider, this is not the first time the firm has revealed plans to launch a mission to fly around the moon, but not land on the celestial body. A previous mission was announced in February 2017 where it aimed to launch two private citizens in 2018 on a similar path taken by NASA’s Apollo 13 astronauts in the 70s after which no one has been to the moon.