SpaceX announcement of first passenger for Lunar BFR
Capitalism in space: SpaceX will have a webcast today at 6 pm (Pacific) to announce the name of the first passenger to fly on a lunar mission using their Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).
The embed of that webcast is below, so if you wish you can watch right here.
Note that my initial post mistaken said this was happening at 6 pm Eastern time. That was an error.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX will have a webcast today at 6 pm (Pacific) to announce the name of the first passenger to fly on a lunar mission using their Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).
The embed of that webcast is below, so if you wish you can watch right here.
Note that my initial post mistaken said this was happening at 6 pm Eastern time. That was an error.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I thought the time was 6 pm Pacific. Did it move?
It’s still 6pm pacific. SpaceX’s youtube link says “live in 7 hours”, and it’s almost 11am Pacific now.
mkent: My error. I have fixed the post and noted the error there.
Here are the three renderings released so far, all believed to be part of an animation which will be played during tonight’s announcement. As always, they likely represent the general features of the current design, but probably have a fair number of accidental omissions or instances of artistic license. When asked, Musk tweeted that the BFR booster (the BRB?) will still have grid fins, but they were accidentally left off in the images. Also, the BRB exhaust looks more like what I’d expect from RP-1/LOX than CH4/LOX. (The name might not stick, but following the FH launch, Musk said the he liked to call the booster BRB (presumably for Big Rocket Booster) since that it what it would say to its launch pad, “Be Right Back!”)
* Full stack, side view (1276 x 2048)
* Full stack, top view (2048 x 1152)
* BFS around the moon (3840 x 2160)
My prediction, based on their decision to announce the lunar flight so early (what, four to five years in advance), is that the buyer is paying a very large sum up front (perhaps approaching $1B, but either refundable or exchangeable for SpaceX stock if the flight doesn’t happen by a given date) which will help fund BFR development in exchange for exclusive rights to the first crewed lunar flight. He will then go on to sell additional seats on the flight as well as create some television shows about training and preparation, and if legalities can be worked out, even have a contest or lottery to fill some seats.
Half of me thinks, “Hey, what ever it takes to fund development of this thing.”, while the other half worries about it being turned into a circus.
D. D. Harriman strikes again
You may be onto something there, Kirk.
Well – we’ll find out in two hours.
Kirk, Ya hit the nail on the head! Now the question is does the moolah go to fund BFR or to bail out Tesla?
BTW, apparently lots of people hung onto their Pan Am “tickets” (actually it guaranteed you the right to buy a ticket – if only the NFL had paid attention they could have had PSL’s in the Seventies)
https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/9656/how-much-did-pan-am-tickets-to-the-moon-cost
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/were-you-member-%E2%80%9Cfirst-moon-flights%E2%80%9D-club
And although he’s not Branson, Musk definitely has a PT Barnum streak, so it’s already a circus
“I choose to go to the Moon.”
What brilliance. “I” choose.
The space community has been looking for a Kennedy moment for space travel for a long time, but rather than it coming from the U.S. government, it comes from a private citizen. This is the epitome of the idea of capitalism in space, serving We the People of the world.
Well, Kirk was mostly right.
Whatever Maezawa has paid, it’s enough that it will “materially contribute” to the development of BFR. Has to be nine figures easy, probably closer to 10. Which, being a billionaire, he can certainly afford.
And it does seem as if it’s as much Maezawa wanting to help fund the BFR as much as him wanting to fly on it.
And even if Maezawa is not selling these extra seats, it certainly sounds like he will be taking the opportunity to market the heck out of the trip.