First crewed Starship flights
Of course, this flight won’t happen very soon. Before they can step into the spacecraft, there are numerous test flights (and two other crewed Starship missions) that will take place first. Once Starship completes all its necessary testing and is ready for crew, the first crewed flight of the vehicle will be a part of the Polaris Program. Created in the wake of the Inspiration 4 mission, Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program is aimed to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities. This first crewed Starship flight will be the third mission of the Polaris Program.
Another Starship flight already on the docket is the dearMoon flight. This will be the first crewed flight of Starship around the Moon, funded by Yusaku Maezawa. Bringing up to eight artists along for the mission, he hopes that they will be inspired by this journey to the Moon and back, and that the experience can help inspire their work.
SpaceX announces crew for second Starship flight around Moon
In SpaceX’s most recent update on their website, the company announced two of the crew members who will board Starship for the vehicles second crewed flight around the Moon. These first two crew members are Dennis and Akiko Tito. Dennis is known for becoming the first commercial astronaut back in 2001. He flew on a Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station, where he spent almost eight days.
During the week-long spaceflight to the Moon, SpaceX says they will fly within 200km of the Moon’s surface and complete a full journey around the Moon before returning to Earth.
