Fly to the Moon for £100m

Posted by clnews Space Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

(The Telegraph) Excalibur Almaz, a British space company based on the Isle of Man, has announced plans to make the first trip to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission of 1972.

The company has acquired a fleet of former Soviet shuttles and space stations and is planning the mission in three years time.

The flight, which would last four months and fly past the moon at a distance of 1000km, is open to anyone who can finance it including government-sponsored researchers, space agency scientists or even billionaires with money to burn.

But any space enthusiast wishing to make the trip would have to be willing to fly the craft themself because no trained astronauts would accompany them on their odyssey, the company said.

Art Dula, who founded the company in 2005, announced a plan to carry out the first test flight in 2014 and the first civilian voyage a year later in a speech at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London yesterday.

Read the full article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9342210/Fly-to-the-moon-for-100m.html