A Lunar fly-by planned for 2018. Surprising stuff.
We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission.
I guess that Mudspike Mug money is paying off @BeachAV8R? 
We’re doing private Moon stuff now?
Okay, where do we put money out for a mission where Scott Manley has to crunch the math for a moon flyby, then get in the capsule and fly it irl?
Randall Monroe can go with him.
Also here’s to hoping those two private customers aren’t Matt Damon and or Tom Hanks. They’d probably end up getting stranded on Io.
Kickstarter Idea: Crowdfunding to send a person to the moon even if they don’t want to go. Ski-masks and white van included.
A couple of hints so far on costs and mission type:
Was quoted as being ‘similar to existing ISS tourist costs’, so maybe $25 million ish?
Looks like they are just along for the ride, as in maybe a FisherPrice playset to push but largely just automated. Sort of like an Apollo 8 deal for the Falcon Heavy and Dragon Cap 2.
I wonder how the NASA SLS people feel about their current plan to do the same mission in 2021. I bet Boeing gets a phone call now…
Best thing space-race wise would be that the two people aren’t Americans. Imagine the uproar and immediate massive NASA funding, lol…
That’d be playing with fire though. That’d make NASA losers. Tiny hands likes guys who don’t lose. Might end up getting NASA cut all together.
Well, it all gets a bit political so best for us not to go there really. As soon as politics, religion, etc get involved then it really helps the ol’ page views but tends to create such deep divides.
Space and politics are really interlinked historically though of course. I think purely for populist / nationalistic reasons the next few years will be ripe for some old fashioned ‘man stood with flag’ stuff from a few of the big players.
For this Space X thing, it sounds great but as long as the Falcon Heavy unmanned launches go perfectly. Three boosters and all that mass is pretty tough to see working without hitches first go around, and delays can last years when things go boom. Maybe the SLS and the Falcon will literally race in 2021 afterall.
All I read was @fearlessfrog is a bad influence on poor innocent forum goers.
I’m curious to see strong their confidence is for that heavy booster, and if it remains that way. I feel like accidentally cooking a pair of investors is much worse than slipping on a launch window.
Well, the rocket has a really nice website, so in many ways the most difficult bits have been done 
http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy
It seems a lot of the confidence comes from ‘scaling up’ by using the exact same Merlin motors in the same 9-circle configuration.
Seeing those three guys vertically land is going to be insane, plus getting modern-day HD footage from Lunar orbit (even if just a safe-return trajectory). Also, nicely fitting that they are using Pad 39A again for all this…
wow, indeed. The Dragon page is also really neat.
The HD live feed of some plutocrat laughing on camera with the moon in the background has about as much appeal to me as a Kardashian’s rear end.
Who cares what’s going on inside the can? it’s all automated.
I definitely want HD, low altitude fly-by pictures of the moon though.
Has to be Ballmer and Branson. At least the soundtrack will be good.
Chang’e 5 lands this year. I believe the Chinese have photography pretty well figured out.