Elon Musk, the founder of the rocket company SpaceX, is about to reveal who the company’s first lunar space tourist will be.
“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 travelling to space,” SpaceX said on its website.
“Only 24 humans have been to the Moon in history. No one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972.”
SpaceX said the mission will launch aboard its upcoming launch system, called the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR.
The BFR is an ambitious launch system that’s being prototyped at the Port of Los Angeles. The design, at least as Musk described it during a 2017 presentation, calls for a 157-foot-tall spaceship that will ride a 191-foot-tall rocket booster into orbit.
But new renderings Musk shared this morning hint at significant design changes. More details about the launch system will likely be revealed during Musk’s announcement this evening.
A recent rendering of SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket. (Elon Musk/SpaceX/Twitter)
Musk and the company’s ultimate goal is to use BFR to colonize Mars.
Business Insider will be reporting live from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as we meet the passenger and as Musk reveals why the person is making the trip.
You can watch the entire event via streaming video below or on YouTube. The feed started just shortly after 9 pm EDT (6 pm PDT, 1 am GMT).
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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