SpaceX postpones plans to send space tourists to the moon until 2019

SpaceX has announced that its plan to fly two private space tourists around the moon in 2018 has been postponed to 2019. The tourists are unlikely to set course for the moon until mid-2019.

A spokesperson for SpaceX says in an email, which the Wall Street Journal quotes, among others, that Elon Musk’s space company is still planning to send individuals on a orbit around the moon and that there is increasing interest in it. It is intended that the Falcon Heavy rocket will be used for this purpose. A clear reason for the delay has not been disclosed, but it probably has to do in part with SpaceX’s own prediction that 2019 will see 40 percent fewer launches than previously thought, which would reduce revenue for the company.

In addition, the necessary Falcon Heavy rocket has still not flown since its maiden flight in February. Commercial interest in this heavy rocket does not yet seem very great, partly because the Falcon 9 rocket can already meet the lion’s share of requirements to get satellites into orbit. Earlier, two SpaceX executives have indicated that no commercial party has yet asked to bring more than 20,000 kg into space. That’s about the maximum weight the rocket can bring into low Earth orbit. There are still two Falcon Heavy launches in the books for this year, including one on October 13.

Under the original plan, two high-paying space tourists would have had to go into space sometime this year on a Falcon Heavy rocket, fly close to the moon in the Crew Dragon capsule, then leave it behind and go deeper into space. and then return to Earth. The Crew Dragon is largely funded by NASA. It is not clear how much the two tourists jointly paid, but that would certainly be eighty million dollars.