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Space tourist Dennis Tito books two seats to the moon on SpaceX Starship
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Space tourist Dennis Tito books two seats to the moon on SpaceX Starship

The first person to pay his way into space has now bought two tickets to the moon. Dennis Tito revealed that he and his wife have reserved seats on a SpaceX Starship circumlunar flight.

Culture & Entertainment

The first person to pay his way into space has now bought two tickets to the moon.

Dennis Tito, who in 2001 became the first privately-funded space tourist to fly to the International Space Station, revealed on Tuesday (Oct. 12) that he and his wife, Akiko, have reserved seats on SpaceX's second circumlunar flight (opens in new tab) on board the still-in-development Starship launch vehicle.

"We looked at each other, and we knew right away," Tito said of his and Akiko's decision to fly to the moon in an interview with Ars Technica (opens in new tab). The idea came up during a 2021 visit to SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, 20 years after Tito's first spaceflight.

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The two signed a contract with SpaceX that summer. As currently planned, the Titos will join 10 other passengers, still to be signed up, on a week-long mission that will bring them within 25 miles (40 km) of the lunar surface. The launch is expected later this decade, following another lunar mission dubbed "#dearMoon" (opens in new tab) that was booked by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in 2018.