Ever dreamed of traveling around the Moon? Well, it seemed like Elon Musk was going to make that dream a reality for some lucky (and wealthy) individuals.

If all went well, the journey around the Moon was going to take one week. It would entail coming near the surface of the Moon (but not landing on the Moon), going farther into deep space, and then looping back to Earth.

The planned trip would consist of approximately 300,000 to 400,000 mi.

This was supposed to happen during 2018 on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. But as of right now, the company has once again delayed the mission for about four months. It’s now set to launch in March 2018.

The plan was to have the Crew Dragon lift off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic launch pad 39A, which is the same launch site used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions.

SpaceX is looking at this as a huge opportunity for driving its revenue. It’s hoping that these missions will begin making up 10% to 20% of SpaceX’s revenue. There are millionaires out there who crave the unknown, and they’re more than willing to pay for the bragging rights that’ll come along with being one of the first “normal” people in space.

In August, Musk unveiled a photo of the SpaceX spacesuit. The picture was shared via an Instagram post that showed off the new astronaut suit positioned next to the company’s Crew Dragon capsule. Sharing the post of the suit next to the spacecraft was a way to keep the topic of the mission relevant and the idea fresh in peoples’ minds — in case we’d forgotten the company’s plans…

The Musk Reality

This mission has been delayed a few times. It was first scheduled to lift off in December 2016, then May 2017, July 2017, August 2017, and November 2017…

And by the looks of it, it may even get delayed further than March 2018.

For me, I take Musk’s grand plans with a grain of salt.

Yes, I think his plans are ambitious and would benefit his companies, investors, and wealth. But there needs to be a little practicality involved — at least when it comes to creating a realistic timeline for when the public can expect these grandiose plans of his to happen.

We may all remember how in 2011, Musk promised that he’d be putting people in space in just three years, and it’s now 2017…

Can we really expect private citizens to be taking trips to the moon by 2018 when Falcon Heavy is behind its original schedule?

The Falcon Heavy was expected to already be flying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) by now. The spacecraft was set to make its first trip by December 2017, but that trip might not be happening.

Musk had this to say about Falcon Heavy’s setbacks:

I think Falcon Heavy is going to be a great vehicle. There’s just so much that’s really impossible to test on the ground, and we’ll do our best. It actually ended up being way harder to do Falcon Heavy than we thought.

Musk has pretty much summed up the outlook for most of the projects we’re expecting from SpaceX — that the project might be actually becoming way harder to execute than originally thought.

And I’m not saying this to shed a bad light on SpaceX because it’s failing to meet deadlines and schedules. I’m saying this because the reality is that we need schedules for these types of projects that are more realistic.

There’s a lot to consider when going into space and taking individuals into space. No company can afford that type of bad publicity or to increase its risk of having legal action taken against it.

It would be better for Musk to be realistic about these types of projects and when they may actually be completed because otherwise, SpaceX’s reputation is going to start to dwindle.

The Quest to Be in Space

NASA pays Russia’s space agency Roscosmos around $70 million a person to fly astronauts to the ISS. This is a lot of money that NASA could instead be using toward funding other projects or resources.

And this is why NASA has been working directly with SpaceX and Boeing (NYSE: BA) on spacecraft. It wants to make it more affordable for its astronauts to go into space.

But SpaceX isn’t the only company that’s making space travel more feasible…

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his rival spaceflight company, Blue Origins, announced its plans of taking cargo and people to low Earth orbit with its own reusable rockets.

Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origins are making it possible to reduce the overbearing costs of going into space, which will help with speeding up the progress in both commercial space travel and also research and exploration beyond Earth.

When the first landing of Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket was a success, Bezos had this to say:

I believe this is a new Golden Age of space exploration. The first Golden Age was the ’60s. We have been treading water for a long time. We are on the verge of a new Golden Age in rocketry. I believe one day all rockets will have landing gear.

While Elon Musk’s time frame of getting civilians into space may be somewhat ambitious and will most likely fall through like most of his other deadlines, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be happening very soon. Just probably not as soon as 2018…

And who knows if SpaceX will be the first company to make it happen.

Until next time,

Jennifer Clark
Pro Trader Today