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Got $1.5 billion? Then you can go to the moon! A team of former NASA executives created a private venture which offers two-person trips to the moon.
NASA’s last trip to the moon was 40 years ago, when the US beat the Soviet Union in the space race to the moon. Once the moon ‘conquered’ President Obama cancelled NASA’s plan to get back to the moon saying that America has already been there. But as other countries show interest in the space trip, NASA associate administrator Alan Stern, decided to create he new Golden Spike Company. He said that the targeted countries are Japan, South Korea and South Africa.
“It’s not about being first. It’s about joining the club,” Stern said. “We’re kind of cleaning up what NASA did in the 1960s. We’re going to make a commodity of it in the 2020s.”
Stern plans the first trip before the end of the decade and make up to 20 launches in total. Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell doubts the success of the plan as many companies have attempted to send people in the space and failed. The only successful company was Space X, which ferried cargo to the International Space Station for NASA.
“This is unlikely to be the one that will pan out,” McDowell said.
