Jim Cantrell is the CEO of another private space travel company, Vector, and also one of the co-founders of SpaceX. He was consulted by NBC for his expertise, even delivering his own clue on who the passengers may be: The two paying passengers on board the SpaceX Dragon capsule (seen above in its earlier unmanned incarnation after a successful trip) when it takes off in 2018 will also be “trained astronauts.” This means undergoing testing to ensure they’re physically and presumably psychologically healthy enough to make the trip, which will last a week from takeoff to landing. That means being able to withstand those infamous high G-forces upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, when the Dragon will be traveling at an estimated 34,000 miles per hour. And since the Dragon will be a fully automated craft, Cantrell also expects the two passengers to receive some training on what to do if the ship malfunctions in any way, offering this hair-raising hypothetical question that would be enough to talk me out of orbiting the moon, even if I had enough money to afford the trip: As for how much that trip would be, SpaceX and Musk haven’t revealed the actual ticket price, except to say it’s “comparable” to a seat on the International Space Station. For perspective, NASA shells out about $80 million for a seat on the ISS.
