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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.