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Dennis Tito, world's first space tourist, plans flight around the moon aboard SpaceX Starship

By William Harwood

October 12, 2022 / 8:30 AM EDT / CBS News

Dennis Tito, an 82-year-old aerospace engineer-turned-financial analyst who paid Russia $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station in 2001, is working with SpaceX on plans to take his wife on what amounts to a belated honeymoon voyage to the moon.

In an interview with "CBS Mornings," Tito said he and his wife of two years want to fly on Elon Musk's futuristic Starship for the sheer adventure of it. They also want to inspire senior citizens who might think their horizons are increasingly limited.

And they want to play a part in humanity's initial steps out into the solar system.

"I've been thinking about flying to the moon for the last 20 years, since my space flight," Tito said. "And here we were at SpaceX (recently) and they were interested in talking about a space flight. And I brought it up. And within a few minutes, we both were on board."

In an interview Monday at SpaceX's sprawling Starship development complex near Brownsville, Texas, Tito and his wife Akiko, 57, said they hope to blast off with 10 other yet-to-be-named passengers, booked by SpaceX, within the next five years or so — after the rocket completes a series of test flights .

"We will be able to watch the Earth get smaller, and smaller and smaller, and the moon get larger, and larger and larger," Tito said, describing the planned trajectory. "We will then, upon emerging from the far side of the moon, see the Earth" from a perspective only the Apollo astronauts have enjoyed to date.

"We will be literally out of this world," he said.

As it now stands, their voyage presumably would follow two other piloted flights of the Super Heavy/Starship rocket: one to Earth orbit, possibly with billionaire Jared Isaacman, who funded the first private orbital flight aboard a Crew Dragon capsule in 2021; and an around-the-moon flight chartered by Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa .

It's not known when those missions might get off the ground or how much they might cost. Likewise, Tito would not discuss how much he'll be paying for two seats aboard the Starship.

Whatever the amount, it's obviously worth it to a man who described  his space station visit two decades ago as "100 percent enjoyment," adding "I've been thinking about it every day since."

"One of the things I hope to do, we both hope to do, is inspire people that as we get older, there are so many things we still can do," Tito said. "And flying in space actually is a lot easier than a lot of other things. I mean, I'm beyond the age of skiing, but space is a lot easier than that."

Said Akiko Tito, a real estate investor and jet pilot: "Like Dennis said, I think age is just a number. We just want to inspire people and especially me, inspire women, you know, young women (who) want to become a pilot in the future, want to become astronaut. You know, work hard and make it happen."

"Star Trek" actor William Shatner, then 90, set the age record last year when he flew to the edge of space aboard a sub-orbital New Shepard spacecraft from Blue Origin. The oldest person to reach orbit was the late John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew aboard a space shuttle in 1998.

Tito could be nearing 90 himself when he finally gets his Starship flight, but he told "CBS Mornings" correspondent Janet Shamlian he's in better shape now than when he launched aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the first so-called space tourist.

"I am probably in better physical shape than I was 21 years ago," he said, "because I've taken up weightlifting in a serious way. And I wasn't able then to manage the kind of weight I can manage now. So I think I'm in better shape."

But realizing it could be several years before he blasts off aboard the as-yet-untried Starship, he says they're "upping our physical fitness activities and health monitoring to really make sure that we're going to be in shape for many years into the future." The regimen includes weight training along with walking and running on a quarter-mile track outside his house. The couple also has a Pilates studio.

"We're not counting on (launching) next year," Tito said. "So we have to stay in good shape, which is a great motivational thing for us because a lot of people when they reach my age, you know, will sit in a rocking chair and wait for the inevitable."

Akiko Tito said she started working out on a daily basis 20 years ago and now trains for beauty and fitness competitions that focus on "total physical fitness. And then you have to be elegant as well at the same time."

She said she had no hesitation about joining her husband for a flight to the moon. "We want to make it happen together, as a couple," she said.

Born in Tokyo, Akiko Tito holds a degree in economics and moved to New York in 1995 to work on Wall Street while raising a daughter. She and Tito were married in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"So we didn't have a chance really to have a honeymoon," Tito said. Then, laughing, he added, "so maybe this is our honeymoon."

The 394-foot-tall Starship will be the world's most powerful rocket when it finally takes off, generating a staggering 16 million pounds of thrust from the 33 methane-burning Raptor engines powering its "Super Heavy" first stage — twice the liftoff thrust of NASA's $4.1 billion Space Launch System moon rocket .

SpaceX's upper stage — the Starship — is equipped with six Raptor engines and will be capable of carrying passengers and payloads to the moon and beyond. Both stages are fully reusable and will descend to tail-first landings back on Earth using similar software and techniques perfected using the company's smaller Falcon 9 rockets.

The Starship upper stage has been launched seven times on low-altitude test flights, four of which suffered catastrophic failures during the landing sequence. The most recent test flight in May 2021 was fully successful.

"Every time a rocket explodes, you learn something," Tito said. "So the more rocket explosions we see, the better because then we'll get all the bugs out of it."

The Super Heavy first stage has not yet been launched. SpaceX is in the process of testing its engines and other critical systems before a test flight to boost an unpiloted Starship into orbit for the first time, possibly before the end of the year.

SpaceX already holds a $2.9 billion NASA contract to develop a variant of the Starship to serve as the initial lunar lander in the agency's Artemis moon program.

Under the current plan, astronauts launched aboard NASA's third piloted SLS rocket will dock with a Starship in lunar orbit and descend to touchdown near the moon's south pole in the 2025-26 timeframe. SpaceX is required to carry out an unpiloted test flight, complete with moon landing, before that Artemis 3 mission.

Whether SpaceX can perfect the huge rocket and test it to NASA's satisfaction by 2025-26 remains to be seen.

SpaceX does not provide details about its schedule and it's not known how the NASA mission will fit in with the company's plans to launch the other two currently planned Starship missions before Tito and his wife get their turn.

Isaacman, who funded the first private flight, Inspiration 4, to low-Earth orbit in September 2021, has announced plans for three more private missions with SpaceX, including one that will feature the first spacewalk by a private citizen.

Billionaire entrepreneur and art collector Maezawa, founder of ZoZotown, one of Japan's largest retail websites, also has booked a Super Heavy/Starship flight to carry him and several companions on the first privately-funded flight around the moon.

Tito's flight presumably will follow Maezawa's, but it's not known whether one or both will precede NASA's lunar landing mission or whether Tito will get his wish within five years as hoped.

"We're prepared to wait as long as it takes to get everything perfected," Tito said.

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

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The World's First Space Tourist Arrived at the International Space Station 20 Years Ago — Here's What He Says About the Trip

Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, spent eight days at the International Space Station in 2001.

Jessica Poitevien is an international storyteller and regular contributor to Travel + Leisure.

Space tourism once seemed like an idea for the distant future, but with the world's first space hotel set to open in 2027 and companies like SpaceX , Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic vying to make space travel more broadly available, it seems like the future is now.

And it all started 20 years ago, when U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito became the world's first space tourist .

On April 30, 2001, Tito, then 60, accomplished what was a lifelong dream of his when he arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz rocket. The trip cost him $20 million, but reflecting on the moment two decades later, Tito still feels the experience was worth every penny.

"The pencils started floating in the air, and I could see the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth," he told CNN Travel . "I was euphoric. I mean, it was the greatest moment of my life, to achieve a life objective, and I knew then that nothing could ever beat this."

Though Tito was working in finance when he launched into orbit, he had originally started his career in aeronautics and astronautics and kept his dream of going to space alive for several decades, CNN Travel reports. For Tito, outer space was something that had fascinated him since childhood.

According to CNN Travel , NASA was against the idea of sending civilians to space, so in 1991, Tito turned to the Soviet Union and began conversations about paying to join the country's space mission. Later in that decade, he resumed those conversations before his eventual flight in 2001.

"In the late '90s, the Russians were really hurting for funding of this space program and the bottom line was, I figured out, 'Huh, maybe I could get involved with the Russians,'" he told CNN Travel .

Eventually, on April 28, 2001, Tito took off on his journey to the ISS with two Russian cosmonauts by his side. They arrived at the station two days later.

"I just enjoyed looking at the window, videoing the Earth, the portholes, the station. It was just wonderful," Tito told CNN Travel . "It just was — whatever I had expected, the best I had expected times 10. It was the best experience of my whole life, those eight days."

Though only a handful of other ultra-wealthy people have managed to pay their way onto a space mission since Tito first paved the way, he is keeping an eye on the industry's development, hoping more people will get to experience what he did.

"I just wish them the best," he said to CNN Travel . "I am hopeful they will have the wonderful experience that I had."

Jessica Poitevien is a Travel + Leisure contributor currently based in South Florida, but she's always on the lookout for her next adventure. Besides traveling, she loves baking, talking to strangers, and taking long walks on the beach. Follow her adventures on Instagram .

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Ten years ago today, space tourists began to play

After taking off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on April 28, 2001 enroute to the International Space Station, wealthy engineer Dennis Tito became the first private citizen to go to space.

On April 28, 2001, the world of exploration changed forever.

On that day 10 years ago, Dennis Tito, a wealthy engineer who had recently turned 60, broke one of the most sacred barriers in exploration: he became the first private citizen to go to space.

Blasting off on that Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Russian rocket--Soyuz TM-32--Tito was on his way to a place only professional astronauts and military- or government-sponsored personnel had been able to go before.

Marking 10 years of space tourism (images)

Tito was the launch client for a new company called Space Adventures that was founded in 1998. Led by chairman Eric Anderson, the company set out to change one of the most fundamental dynamics of space travel and make it possible for the first time for private citizens to experience life beyond Earth.

This was not possible in the United States. NASA was not interested in taking tourists aboard the Space Shuttle--and never has been--explained Space.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz. And so those like Tito who wanted to make like an astronaut had no choice but to go the Space Adventures route--which meant traveling to Russia for weeks of training and an eventual trip aboard one of that country's Soyuz rockets.

This would not be cheap, of course. In the beginning, Tito paid about $20 million, Moskowitz said, an amount that would be today considered "a bargain," given that a trip aboard one of the rockets to the International Space Station now runs more than $40 million.

But in the 10 years since Tito's flight, Space Adventures has booked more than $250 million in spaceflights, the company said. In addition to Tito, Space Adventures has been the booking agent for several other "self-funded" astronauts, including South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari, American video game developer Richard Garriott, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, and Microsoft software guru Charles Simonyi, the only two-time space tourist .

Related links • Amazing videos of SpaceShipTwo in flight • Celebrating 50 years since Yuri Gagarin's 'Let's Go!' • Simonyi signs up for another rocket ride • Spaceflight to cost $40 million in 2009

But back then, in the spring of 2001, this was an entirely fledgling venture, and Tito was about to do something that was seen as being just the first step to a possible eventual democratization of space.

"It was the first time a private citizen had paid his own way to go to space," said Moskowitz. "Up until then, it had only been professional astronauts and military...The rest of us were earthbound. It was the first time that everybody got a glimpse that maybe we could go to space, too."

While it's clear that a Space Adventures trip is only available to multimillionaires today, Moskowitz said the reason Tito's flight was so important was that it was a necessary first step down the long road towards much cheaper space travel. "The more demand for private space flight," she said, "the more those flights will take place and the more the price will come down. It's the first step pointing to the future, and it gives the rest of us hope that eventually, the price will come down to the point where you don't have to be a multimillionaire to go to space."

To be sure, though, if that happens it's decades away. British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic promises $200,000 trips to space in the next year or so, but those are sub-orbital flights that return to Earth without passengers having even made a full trip around the planet. By comparison, Tito not only got to travel to the space station, he got to spend eight days there.

'It's now or never' In an interview in Space.com, Tito explained that he had first come up with what he called his "lifelong goal" to go to space around the time of Soviet hero Yuri Gagarin's first flight in 1961 . "So here I was, in the year 2000, and I was about to turn 60," Tito told Space.com. "I said, 'Time is running out.' Because at that point, the oldest person that ever flew as a rookie, to my knowledge, was Deke Slayton, who was 51. So I was getting over the hill, I thought. So I said, 'It's now or never.'"

Clearly, he made it, and as he told Space.com, the experience was memorable for a wide range of reasons. Perhaps the part that stuck with him the most was something he might never have guessed. "They had pencils hanging from strings in the cabin of the Soyuz," he recalled. "And these pencils just started floating, and I knew it was weightless. You couldn't really tell yourself, because you're strapped in with your belts, so you didn't float at all. But I knew that we were in orbit. And I looked out the window, saw the blackness of space, saw the curvature of Earth and I just said, 'Yes. I made it. I accomplished my life's dream.' And that moment I will never forget."

The World’s First Space Tourist Plans a Return Trip—This Time to the Moon

F ew people had heard of aerospace engineer and financial analyst Dennis Tito before 2001. That was the year Tito, then 60, became the first paying space tourist, cutting a $20 million check to Russia to fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and spend a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, Tito has remained Earthbound, but has never quite shaken the adventuring bug. Now, he is planning to return to space—this time traveling to the moon, a route nobody but the Apollo astronauts have ever flown.

As SpaceNews , CNN , and others report, Tito, now 82, and his wife Akiko, have both inked a deal to travel on a one-week journey aboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, along with up to 10 other paying passengers. They will be flying a path that will take them around the far side of the moon and slingshot them back home. The amount Tito and his wife are paying for their seats aboard the ship has not been disclosed.

The Starship is a 50 m (164 ft.) tall stainless steel spacecraft that launches atop SpaceX’s 69 m (226 ft.) Super Heavy booster. While the the rocket has never flown before, SpaceX hopes to launch it on its first, uncrewed Earth-orbital mission as early as next month. Following that, the Starship-Super Heavy pair will make its first crewed flight—also Earth orbital—in 2024 or 2025. Tito’s circumlunar flight would come sometime after that.

Just this week, SpaceX rolled the Super Heavy booster out to the launch pad at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch base, and stacked the Starship spacecraft on top. It was the first time the two segments of the giant machine had been mated. Together they make a formidable sight, towering 120 m (394 ft.) high—or a good seven stories taller than NASA’s mega moon rocket , the Space Launch System (SLS). Starship is also significantly more powerful than the SLS. Starship’s 33, methane-fueled engines put out 7.2 million kg (16 million lb.) of thrust, nearly double that of NASA’s 6-engine rocket, which produces 4 million kg (8.8 million lb.).

Tito will make his journey aboard an identical machine—indeed, it could be the exact same one, since both the Starship and Super Heavy are designed to be reusable. In some respects, he surprised himself by deciding to make the trip at all. Until recently, he said in a call with reporter, he had hadn’t been planning to return to space, but, “over time, watching the developments of SpaceX and just what they were doing fascinated me.”

Last year, he began discussions with SpaceX, and told the company he would like to fly again, though not merely to the ISS. “‘I would be interested in going to the moon,'” he recalls saying. “And then I looked over to Akiko, and we had a little eye contact, and she goes, ‘Yeah, me too.’”

For the record, Tito says that after this mission, he really, truly will be retiring from the spaceflight game.

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Dennis Tito, the very first Space Tourist

Crew of Soyuz TM-32. (from left: Dennis Tito, Talgat Musabayev, and Yuri Baturin)

On April 28 , 2001 , American engineer and multimillionaire Dennis Tito joined the Soyuz TM-32 mission to the International Space Station ISS , spending 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space and orbiting Earth 128 times. He paid $20 Mio for his trip, which made him the very first space tourist in history.

Space Travel

Who ever thought that space tourism would become possible? To travel in space simply for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Of course, up to now, traveling to space is only reserved for the very rich people, who are able to afford this luxury – flights brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been US $20–40 million. But, with Space Ship One traveling to the border of outer space and experiencing zero gravity has become affordable for a few more but only the very richest.[ 2 ] Will traveling to space ever become a mass phenomenon? Who knows. But, today, we will tell you the story of the very first space tourist Dennis Tito .

Dennis Tito

At the end of the 1990s , MirCorp , a private venture that was by then in charge of the space station, began seeking potential space tourists to visit Mir in order to offset some of its maintenance costs. Dennis Tito , an American businessman and former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, became their first candidate. When the decision to de-orbit Mir was made, Tito managed to switch his trip to the International Space Station ( ISS ). In 1972 , Dennis Tito had founded Wilshire Associates , a leading provider of investment management, consulting and technology services in Santa Monica, California , serving an international clientele representing assets of $71 billion. Wilshire relies on the field of quantitative analytics, which uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. Despite a career change from aerospace engineering to investment management , Tito remained interested in space. Tito was accepted by the  Russian Federal Space Agency as a candidate for a commercial spaceflight. Although, he met criticism from NASA before the launch, because NASA considered it inappropriate for a tourist to take a ride into space. When Tito arrived at the Johnson Space Center for additional training on the American portion of the ISS , NASA refused to provide training for Dennis Tito . Thus, later through an arrangement with space tourism company Space Adventures, Ltd ., Tito joined the Soyuz TM-32 mission on April 28 , 2001 , spending 7 days in space, while he performed several scientific experiments in orbit useful for his company. Tito paid a reported $20 million for his trip.

Dennis Tito should not be the last space tourist . Only about a year later South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth followed him on board a Soyuz mission to the ISS . And the list of space tourists continues, although the costs have risen to almost $40 million for the trip.

References and Further Reading:

• [1]  BBC report on Dennis Tito’s spaceflight
• [2]  Space Ship One – The First private Space Ship , SciHi Blog
• [3]  The first Modular Space Station – Mir , SciHi Blog
• [4]  The Deorbit of Russian Space Station MIR , SciHi Blog
• [5] Dennis Tito at Wikidata
• [6]  How the law is key to making space tourism happen | Frans von der Dunk | TEDxVienna , TEDx Talks @ youtube
• [7] Timeline of Space Tourists via DBpedia and Wikidata

Harald Sack

Related posts, konstantin feoktistov, space engineer, buran – the russian space shuttle, sergei pavlovich korolev – the father of practical astronautics, luna 3 and the first picture of the far side of the moon, leave a reply cancel reply.

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Space tourist Dennis Tito books two seats to the moon on SpaceX Starship

Tito and his wife are booked on a week-long mission that will dip in close to the lunar surface.

The first person to pay his way into space has now bought two tickets to the moon.

Dennis Tito , who in 2001 became the first privately-funded space tourist to fly to the International Space Station, revealed on Wednesday (Oct. 12) that he and his wife, Akiko, have reserved seats on SpaceX's second circumlunar flight on board the still-in-development Starship launch vehicle.

"We [had] our first discussion with SpaceX a little over a year ago and that came at a time when we were just getting a tour of SpaceX. We weren't even thinking at that point about flying together," said Tito in reply to a question from collectSPACE.com on a call with reporters on Wednesday. "The question came up, would I like to go back and fly in space? Well, I certainly don't want to go back to the space station. I don't even want to orbit the Earth. And then I thought about it and I said I would be interested in going to the moon."

"Then I looked over to Akiko and we kind of had a little eye contact and she goes, 'Yeah, me too.' And that's how it all began," he said.

The two signed a contract with SpaceX in the summer of 2021. As planned, the Titos will join 10 other passengers, still to be signed up, on a week-long mission that will bring them close to the lunar surface. The launch will come after another lunar mission orbit dubbed "#dearMoon" that was booked by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in 2018.

Related:   8 ways that SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

At 82, Tito could set a record as the oldest person to launch into orbit, let alone fly to the moon. He is already older than the current record holder, the late astronaut and Senator John Glenn, who flew on NASA's space shuttle Discovery at the age of 77. (Actor William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame was 90 when he lifted off on Blue Origin's New Shepard last October, but that flight did not enter orbit.)

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Akiko would also become one of the first women to fly around the moon.

"I think another first that's very important is that we'll be the first married couple to fly around the moon. And hopefully that'll be inspiring to other couples to do the same," said Tito. "And I think I probably will end up being the oldest person to go beyond Earth orbit, so that will be nice."

Tito was one of the oldest people to fly into space when he lifted off on his first mission two decades ago.

The first orbital client of the U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures, Tito designed trajectories for NASA missions before making his fortune as the head of an investment management firm. He was 60 when he launched with two career cosmonauts on Russia's Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft on April 28, 2001. Two days later, they docked with the International Space Station, where Tito stayed for five days.

In total, he logged 7 days, 22 hours and 4 minutes in space at a reported cost of $20 million.

"It was eight days of euphoria," Tito told CNN in 2021 . "It was the greatest moment of my life, to achieve a life objective, and I knew then that nothing could ever beat this."

Nothing, perhaps, then a flight into deep space. In 2013, Tito founded Inspiration Mars to pursue a flight to the Red Planet five years later.

"I thought maybe it would be possible if we could get the Apollo kind of excitement going for a mission," said Tito. "That turned out not to be feasible."

Related: The world's first space tourists in photos

The moon now seems much more in reach (Tito did not disclose the price he paid for the two seats). In addition to developing Starship to fly privately-funded tourists around the moon, SpaceX is also under contract with NASA to adapt Starship as a lunar lander for the agency's first return with astronauts to the lunar surface, targeted for 2025. Depending on when he flies, Tito's mission could also serve as a test flight of sorts for NASA's Artemis moon missions.

"I can say unequivocally that we will not be landing on the moon. That is a completely different mission. It involves the Artemis spacecraft , the Orion and the SLS [Space Launch System], and that's above our pay grade," Tito said. [But] I would love them to change the mission profile. Maybe they will decide to do a little burn on the far side of the moon, circularize the orbit and let us go around the moon a few times ... but that would be wishful thinking."

"But if it happened, I'm not going to complain," Tito said.

This article was updated to include Dennis Tito's comments from a call with reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @ collectSPACE . Copyright 2022 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

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Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com , an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.

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An Interview with the First Space Tourist

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Does it seem like 10 years since your flight?

It seems like a short time, because so much has happened that in my view is extremely positive in the commercial human spaceflight domain.

Could you give some examples?

Shortly after I flew, Mark Shuttleworth flew. Then Greg Olsen and Anousheh Ansari — a total of seven people and eight flights [Charles Simonyi flew twice]. The fact that we’ve now done this eight times with seven people is one important accomplishment, because it’s demonstrated that it isn’t just one crazy guy that decided he wanted to fly in space. There are people that are willing to make big sacrifices — financially, putting their lives on the line and taking the time to train in Russia.

I think the success of the [Ansari] X Prize, and Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne successfully flying suborbitally [in 2004], was a major accomplishment for a private company. And then the follow-on, with Virgin Galactic signing them up and funding the development of SpaceShipTwo. We will have suborbital commercial spaceflight, I think, within the next couple-three years at a price that people can afford. So that’s the second major accomplishment.

The third major accomplishment goes beyond anything I’ve seen done by one person since [Soviet aerospace engineer Sergei] Korolev or maybe Wernher von Braun — what Elon Musk has done with SpaceX [Space Exploration Technologies Corp.]. It’s just absolutely incredible what he has accomplished so far. I think this is one man that we’ll look back upon as being one of the greatest space entrepreneurs of all time.

Flying the Falcon 9 with the Dragon space capsule and successfully re-entering it — he’s well on the way to not only developing a cargo ship, which is almost there, but a manned craft, and that will be really our next method, other than calling upon the Russians, to transport people to space.

And the fourth [accomplishment] is politically what has been done at NASA and the administration in terms of changing the whole nature of procurement, and the way they’re supporting commercial human spaceflight. I think this is probably the biggest fundamental change in NASA philosophy and government policy with regard to space in many, many decades, if not from inception. It’s just mind-boggling.

I look back at those accomplishments more than I even look at my own flight as an accomplishment, because it just happened to coincide with this 10-year period.

Do you see orbital spaceflight opening up to a lot more people in the next few decades?

I definitely do. And I think it’s going to be much bigger than most people predict.

I think that we’re going to see the costs, in today’s dollars, of sending an individual to space for a week or whatever reduced by a major, major amount. Right now, I think it’s about $50 million. It could be a million or two if we get some reusability in orbital spacecraft.

You’ve had close to 10 people pay large amounts of money. There aren’t that many people who are worth $50 million. Now, if you lower this down to a million or two — there are actually millions of people in the United States who are worth a million dollars.

Do you think it’s feasible to see the price come down that much in 10 years or so?

Yes. But I may be off in time a little. I think it’ll eventually get down to that price in today’s dollars. It could happen within 10 years. But I think it will happen within 10 to 20 years. And if I’m wrong, it’ll be $5 million — we won’t quite be there yet. But I think you’re going to see a lot of people flying in 2021.

It is exciting. Because as human beings, we need new challenges. And the history of our species is that, for millions of years, we’ve been migrating. We started in Africa, and we’ve been migrating in waves around the world. That’s a natural part of survival.

And we’re going to migrate to Mars and maybe other habitats. We’re going to set up colonies. It’s so ingrained in our behavior as humans to explore, and to expand and to migrate. We’re wired that way, and that’s why it’s so satisfying.

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World’s 1st space tourist signs up for flight around moon

The world’s first space tourist has signed up to spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship. For Dennis Tito, it’s a chance to relive the joy of his trip 21 years ago to the International Space Station. (Oct. 12)

This photo provided by SpaceX photo shows Dennis Tito and his wife, Akiko, at the company’s Starship rocket base near Boca Chica, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. The couple has booked a flight to the moon on SpaceX’s Starship. (SpaceX via AP)

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FILE - U.S. multimillionaire Dennis Tito gives a thumbs up shortly after his landing in the Central Asian steppes, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakstan on May 6, 2001. The world’s first space tourist has signed up to spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship. For Dennis Tito, it’s a chance to relive the joy of his trip 21 years ago to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The world’s first space tourist wants to go back — only this time, he’s signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship.

For Dennis Tito, 82, it’s a chance to relive the joy of his trip to the International Space Station, now that he’s retired with time on his hands. He isn’t interested in hopping on a 10-minute flight to the edge of space or repeating what he did 21 years ago. “Been there, done that.”

His weeklong moonshot — its date to be determined and years in the future — will bring him within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the lunar far side. He’ll have company: his wife, Akiko, and 10 others willing to shell out big bucks for the ride.

Tito won’t say how much he’s paying; his Russian station flight cost $20 million.

The couple recognize there’s a lot of testing and development still ahead for Starship, a shiny, bullet-shaped behemoth that’s yet to even attempt to reach space.

“We have to keep healthy for as many years as it’s going to take for SpaceX to complete this vehicle,” Tito said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “I might be sitting in a rocking chair, not doing any good exercise, if it wasn’t for this mission.”

Tito is actually the second billionaire to make a Starship reservation for a flight around the moon. Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa announced in 2018 he was buying an entire flight so he could take eight or so others with him, preferably artists. The two men both flew to the space station, from Kazakhstan atop Russian rockets, 20 years apart.

Tito kicked off space tourism in 2001, becoming the first person to pay his own way to space and antagonizing NASA in the process. The U.S. space agency didn’t want a sightseer hanging around while the station was being built. But the Russian Space Agency needed the cash and, with the help of U.S.-based Space Adventures, launched a string of wealthy clients to the station through the 2000s and, just a year ago, Maezawa.

Well-heeled customers are sampling briefer tastes of space with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic expects to take paying passengers next year.

Starship has yet to launch atop a Super Heavy booster from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. At 394 feet (120 meters) and 17 million pounds (7.7 million kilograms) of liftoff thrust, it’s the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. NASA already has contracted for a Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in 2025 or so, in the first lunar touchdown since Apollo.

Tito said the couple’s contract with SpaceX, signed in August 2021 and announced Wednesday, includes an option for a flight within five years from now. Tito would be 87 by then and he wanted an out in case his health falters.

“But if I stayed in good health, I’d wait 10 years,” he said.

Tito’s wife, 57, said she needed no persuading. The Los Angeles residents are both pilots and understand the risks. They share Musk’s vision of a spacefaring future and believe a married couple flying together to the moon will inspire others to do the same.

Tito, who sold his investment company Wilshire Associates almost two years ago, said he doesn’t feel guilty splurging on spaceflight versus spending the money here on Earth.

“We’re retired and now it’s time to reap the rewards of all the hard work,” he said.

Tito expects he’ll also shatter preconceived notions about age, much as John Glenn’s space shuttle flight did in 1998. The first American to orbit the Earth still holds the record as the oldest person in orbit.

“He was only 77. He was just a young man,” Tito said. “I might end up being 10 years older than him,”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 6, 2018—an important first step to eventually send crews of travelers.

Are billionaires' space travel plans out of touch with reality?

The space tourism industry is developing–but travelers may not be interested.

In 2001, American businessman Dennis Tito became the world's first space tourist to pay his way. He spent 20 million dollars for almost eight days with the crew on a Russian spacecraft orbiting Earth 128 times. During the next decade, six other space tourists followed with tickets reaching 40 million dollars.

In the years since, some private companies have been working to reduce the cost of space tourism. In 2018, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Tesla using a heavy-lift, reusable rocket, a trial run for eventually sending crews to space stations. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has joined the space race; his company, Blue Origin , also develops new infrastructure to lower the expenses of space travel. Not one to be left behind, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic reportedly sold around 650 tickets for $250,000 apiece for a suborbital passenger flight that has yet to happen. [ Watch Elon Musk freak out over the Falcon Heavy launch. ]

Related: Milestones in Space Photography

While the momentum for space tourism has accelerated, the number of potential travelers remains unclear. Which leaves the question: How many people want to visit the final frontier?

A recent Pew Research Center survey found most people lack the desire to orbit Earth. The research indicates that 58 percent of surveyed U.S. adults have no interest in traveling by spacecraft someday. Their stated concerns ranged from expensive costs, health worries, and general fear.

Around 48 percent of Americans claimed an eagerness to visit space, but their rationale seems a bit wobbly. The survey reports that the most common interest was to “experience something unique.”

Interest aside, intrepid billionaires continue to pursue their otherworldly dreams. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic aim to take tourists on short, suborbital flights to touch the edge of space in the next year. More ambitiously, Elon Musk hopes to colonize Mars.

Airlines also see opportunities in space for the tourism industry. Japan Airlines and ANA have invested in startups specializing in orbital technology, and space tourism companies, like Space Adventures that brokered Dennis Tito’s trip, promise new spaceplanes and zero-gravity flights. Timelines for these innovations are nebulous. [ Learn more about the future of spaceflight. ]

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Despite this promising progress, many remain skeptical. When asked to guess what the future holds for space tourism, only half the U.S. respondents in the Pew survey believed routine space travel will actually happen in the next 50 years. In the meantime, entrepreneurs continue to reach for the stars.

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the first space tourist paid two million dollars.

First space tourist how a u.s. millionaire bought a ticket ..., worlds first space tourist 10 years on dennis tito - bbc news, first space tourist dennis tito it was the greatest moment ..., dennis tito worlds first space tourist plans flight around ..., the worlds first space tourist recalls his trip to the ....

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First Indian space tourist completes flight: What are sub-orbital trips?

The recent blue origin journey was a sub-orbital space flight, meaning it did not get into an orbit around the earth. however, plans are afoot for having deeper space trips in the future, potentially to destinations around the moon, other planets or asteroids..

India-born aviator and commercial pilot Gopi Thotakura was among the six space tourists who undertook a short recreational trip to space on Sunday (May 19). Thotakura, who is based in the United States, is the first space tourist from India but more than 50 others have made such trips to date.

What are sub-orbital trips?

Thotakura flew aboard a spacecraft of Blue Origin , one of the several private space companies offering a joy ride to people wanting to venture into space. From take off to landing, the whole journey lasted only about ten minutes, during which the spacecraft attained a maximum height of about 105 km from the Earth. It was one of the shortest and quickest trips to space.

The passengers – among them a 90-year-old American – got to experience weightlessness for a few minutes and observe Earth from a height.

Forever changed. #NS25 pic.twitter.com/g0uXLabDe9 — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 19, 2024

Space travel begins at about 100 km altitude from Earth, after crossing the so-called Karman line, which is generally considered to be the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Anything flying below this altitude is called an aircraft while those crossing this line get classified as a spacecraft.

Thotakura’s journey was what is called a sub-orbital space flight. The spacecraft did not get into an orbit around the Earth. It crossed the Karman line, stayed there for some time, and then descended back to Earth, similar to how most space tourism flights operate.

• A country where divorce is illegal: How the Philippines is attempting to allow legal separation
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• Monsoon to hit Kerala within five days: What does the 'onset of monsoon' mean?

Are longer journeys possible for space tourists?

Longer joy rides in space are also available. Space tourists have orbited around the Earth, and even spent a few days on the International Space Station, the permanent space laboratory that goes around the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km.

In fact, the first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American who paid to travel on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001. He spent over seven days on the International Space Station. Between 2001 and 2009, the Russians took seven tourists to the space station with one of them, Charles Simonyi, travelling twice.

There are plans afoot for having much deeper space trips for interested individuals, potentially to destinations around the Moon, other planets or asteroids. But these are still some time away in the future. For the time being, sub-orbital space flights are the most favoured journeys for space tourism enthusiasts.

Blue Origin, which carried out the latest flight, has taken 37 tourists to space – all of them in suborbital flights. There are about a dozen private space companies offering tourism opportunities. These include established players like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Axiom Space, Zero Gravity Corporation, and airline companies like Boeing and Airbus.

What are the costs of space tourism?

Blue Origin has not disclosed the price that its latest set of passengers paid for a seat on this journey. But according to Space.com, a similar journey on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, costs about $450,000 (about Rs 3.75 crore).

A journey to the International Space Station is now estimated to cost anything between 20 to 25 million dollars (about Rs 160 to 210 crore). A recent NASA paper mentions that space companies SpaceX and Space Adventures were planning to offer a journey around the Moon for about 70 to 100 million dollars (about Rs 600 to 850 crore).

Clearly, space tourism is accessible to only the super-rich right now. But it is a market that is predicted to grow rapidly.

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• space tourism

Taking a break from sex can have surprising consequences for your body and mind, including hormonal shifts, changes in mood and stress levels, and decreased sexual desire. Physiological changes can include a decrease in hormones like oxytocin and estrogen, leading to changes in vaginal health and libido. Psychological changes can include mood swings and lower self-esteem.

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Blue Origin Flies Tourists Again After 20-Month Pause: Every ‘Space First’ Launched So Far

After sunday's mission, blue origin has launched a total of 37 passengers into space to date..

Over the weekend, Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin launched its first passengers to suborbital space since 2022. On May 19, six space tourists were strapped inside Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule and rocketed to space, crossing the Kármán line—the imaginary barrier that separates Earth’s atmosphere from space—before landing under parachute in the west Texas desert.  Mason Angel , Sylvain Chiron , Kenneth L. Hess , Carol Schaller , Gopi Thotakura , and Ed Dwitght made up the crew of the NS-25 mission. Dwight is no stranger to spaceflight as he was selected by the Kennedy administration to train for NASA’s space program in the early 1960s as the first African-American astronaut, but ultimately was not selected. At the age of 90, Dwight finally made it to space, and earned a place in history books as the oldest person to fly to space.

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“I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” he said on the livestream, “but I was wrong!” Dwight added that the experience was life-changing and he hopes everyone can experience it. 

The NS-25 mission marked the seventh crewed mission and a return to flying passengers for Blue Origin, as the company’s space capsule was grounded following an anomaly in 2022 during the NS-23 mission. Shortly after liftoff, the mission ended abruptly as the launch escape system was triggered due to a booster malfunction. There were no crew members on board that flight, only dozens of scientific payloads containing research equipment. 

Following an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and a slew of corrective actions, Blue Origin successfully flew again before passengers were allowed to climb onboard. In Sunday’s flight, one of the three parachutes that aid the New Shepard capsule in its landing failed to fully deploy.  Blue Origin (and others like SpaceX and Boeing) design their capsules with redundant systems in case of a scenario like this. That means that the capsule is capable of landing safely with only two parachutes.  Despite no issues with crew or the spacecraft during Sunday’s landing, Blue Origin said its engineers will look into the parachute anomaly. The FAA commented that it did not feel like the parachute issue was a mishap, which likely means that Blue Origin can keep flying. 

To date, Blue Origin has launched a total of 37 passengers into space. Here’s a look back at some of the company’s milestones during its seven crewed missions:

July 20, 2021: Blue Origin launched its first passengers, which included Wally Funk , who at the time was the oldest person to launch to space at 82. The passenger list also included the youngest person to fly to space, Oliver Daeman , a Dutch physics student who flew in place of his father, a hedge fund tycoon. 

October 13, 2021: Blue Origin launched William Shatner , who broke Wally Funk’s record as being the oldest person to launch to space. He was 90 years old at the time. On this flight, Blue Origin also launched the first father-and-son duo, Lane and Cameron Bess. 

March 31, 2022: Marc and Sharon Hagle become the first married couple to launch into space on Blue Origin. 

June 4, 2022: Evan Dick becomes the first passenger to launch twice, once in December 2021 and again in June 2022. 

August 4, 2022: Blue Origin achieved multiple firsts on this date as Mário Ferreira becomes the first Portuguese person to go to space, Sara Sabry is the first person from Egypt to fly to space, and Vanessa O’Brien earns a Guinness World Record as the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air after crossing the Kármán line. 

May 19, 2024: Ed Dwight dethrones William Shatner as the oldest person to fly to space, helping him achieve a lifelong dream, more than 50 years in the making. 

• SEE ALSO : What Melinda French Gates’s Philanthropy Could Look Like Post-Gates Foundation

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May 19, 2024

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Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space, including oldest astronaut

by Issam AHMED

After a nearly two-year hiatus, Blue Origin flew adventurers to space on Sunday, including a former Air Force pilot who was denied the chance to be the United States' first Black astronaut decades ago.

It was the first crewed launch for the enterprise owned and founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos since a rocket mishap in 2022 left rival Virgin Galactic as the sole operator in the fledgling suborbital tourism market.

Six people including the sculptor Ed Dwight, who was on track to become NASA's first astronaut of color in the 1960s before being controversially spurned, launched around 09:36 am local time (1436 GMT) from the Launch Site One base in west Texas, a live feed showed.

Dwight—at 90 years, 8 months and 10 days—became the oldest person to ever go to space.

"This is a life-changing experience, everybody needs to do this," he exclaimed after the flight.

"I thought I didn't really need this in my life," he added, reflecting on his omission from the astronaut corps, which was his first experience with failure as a young man.

"But I lied," he added, with a hearty laugh.

"You take everything you imagined, you multiply it roughly by 100 and you are still quite far from reality," crewmate and French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron told AFP.

"I'm not quite back down to Earth yet."

Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for Blue Origin, which sees short jaunts on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a stepping stone to greater ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy rocket and lunar lander.

Including Sunday's crew, the company has flown 37 people aboard New Shepard—a small, fully reusable rocket system named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

Second nonagenarian

The program encountered a setback when a New Shepard rocket caught fire shortly after launch on September 12, 2022, even though the uncrewed capsule ejected safely.

A federal investigation revealed an overheating engine nozzle was at fault. Blue Origin took corrective steps and carried out a successful uncrewed launch in December 2023, paving the way for Sunday's mission.

After liftoff, the sleek and roomy capsule separated from the booster, which produces zero carbon emissions. The rocket performed a precision vertical landing.

As the spaceship soared beyond the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, passengers had the chance to marvel at the Earth's curvature and unbuckle their seatbelts to float—or somersault—during a few minutes of weightlessness.

The capsule then reentered the atmosphere, deploying its parachutes for a desert landing in a puff of sand. However, one of the three parachutes failed to fully inflate, possibly resulting in a harder landing than expected.

Asked for comment, a Blue Origin spokesperson stressed its system was designed with multiple fail-safes.

"The capsule is designed to safely land with one parachute. The overall mission was a success, and all of our astronauts are excited to be back," the spokesperson said.

In all, the mission lasted around 11 minutes roundtrip.

Bezos himself was on the program's first crewed flight in 2021. A few months later, Star Trek's William Shatner blurred the lines between science fiction and reality when he became the world's oldest astronaut at age 90, decades after he first played a space traveler.

To space, finally

Dwight, who was almost two months older than Shatner at the time of his flight, became only the second nonagenarian to venture beyond Earth.

Astronaut John Glenn remains the oldest to orbit the planet, a feat he achieved in 1998 at the age of 77 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Sunday's mission finally gave Dwight the chance he was denied decades ago.

He was an elite test pilot when he was appointed by then-president John F Kennedy to join a highly competitive Air Force program known as a Pathway for the astronaut corps, but was ultimately not picked.

He left the military in 1966, citing the strain of racial politics, before dedicating his life to telling Black history through sculpture. His art, displayed around the country, includes iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and more.

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Elon Musk calls out Boeing's historic first crewed spaceflight, saying SpaceX beat them to the punch years ago

• Elon Musk criticized Boeing on X ahead of its first astronaut flight to space.
• SpaceX beat Boeing to the punch, flying NASA astronauts to the space station four years ago for cheaper.
• Musk said Boeing has "too many non-technical managers."

Elon Musk soured the day of Boeing's first astronaut flight to space by lobbing criticism at the company on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Boeing built the Starliner spaceship in collaboration with NASA, and it's set to launch into space on Monday evening, carrying astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station .

But SpaceX beat them to the punch in 2020 when it became the first private company to fly astronauts in space and ended a nine-year hiatus in US human spaceflight.

Musk was sure to point this out in an X post on Monday, stating "SpaceX finished 4 years sooner." Boeing did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship that accomplished the feat came from the same NASA initiative that's flying Starliner on Monday. The effort, called the Commercial Crew Program, gave Boeing $4.2 billion to design, build, and test its spaceship.

Not only did SpaceX do it faster — its spaceship was also cheaper, costing NASA just $2.6 billion. Since its first crewed flight in 2020, the company has flown seven astronaut crews to and from the ISS for NASA, with its eighth currently living on the station. It has also flown four private missions .

With each flight, SpaceX has earned money , while Boeing has been sinking more and more funds into Starliner.

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Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, pointed out the disparity on X on Monday morning. He attributed it to "too many non-technical managers at Boeing."

Although Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only got $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished 4 years sooner. Note, the crew capsule design of Dragon 2 has almost nothing in common with Dragon 1. Too many non-technical managers at Boeing. https://t.co/bTXWAfxfrh — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2024

Musk was reposting an Ars Technica article by the publication's senior space editor Eric Berger, which laid out in detail how "Boeing decisively lost the commercial crew space race, and it proved to be a very costly affair."

There were clear technical reasons for the delays. During Starliner's first attempt to fly to the ISS without a crew, software errors forced it to return to Earth early. Then a series of issues, including dysfunctional valves in the propulsion system, caused further delays.

But commentators like Musk and Berger say there's an underlying cause.

The Commercial Crew Program represents a major shift in how NASA sees its contractors. Going forward, from space stations to the moon to Mars, NASA wants to foster a new competitive economy in space. Rather than the entity running everything, the agency wants to be one of many customers on companies' space stations, spaceships, and lunar bases.

That's part of why Crew Dragon and Starliner were on fixed-price contracts. NASA set the price, and then SpaceX and Boeing had to build and fly the spaceships to NASA's specifications.

After all, the companies would have other customers on their spaceships. They weren't building them just for the government. So it's on them if costs start to balloon.

That's an adjustment for Boeing as a legacy contractor for the Department of Defense and NASA, aerospace expert George Nield previously told Business Insider.

Boeing was used to the government paying all of its expenses to deliver the best possible product. Under that model, Berger explained, "cost overruns and delays were not the company's problem — they were NASA's."

Suddenly, with a fixed price, "it's up to the company to figure out what risks to take in terms of new technologies and new approaches," said Nield, who is a former associate administrator of the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

Adjusting to the fixed-price model was a challenge for Boeing, which has long had the luxury of moving slowly. Scrappy SpaceX, however, was "in its natural environment," as Berger put it.

A spokesperson told Berger that "challenges arise when the fixed price acquisition approach is applied to serious technology development requirements, or when the requirements are not firmly and specifically defined resulting in trades that continue back and forth before a final design baseline is established."

According to Berger, the spokesperson added: "A fixed price contract offers little flexibility for solving hard problems that are common in new product and capability development."

Watch: Why flying is so terrible even though airlines spend billions

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Money blog: Top five subjects parents think should be taught in schools

Parents see personal finance as a more important life skill than maths for schoolchildren, according to new research. Read this and the rest of today's consumer and personal finance news in the Money blog below, and leave your thoughts in the comments box.

Wednesday 29 May 2024 12:00, UK

• Spotify launches cheaper deals - but there's a catch
• Top five subjects parents think should be taught in schools - with personal finance above maths
• Beach-goers warned they face £1,000 fine if they take pebbles
• UK has highest diesel prices in Europe

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• Head chef at UK's number one gastropub shares favourite cheap pasta recipe
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Parents see personal finance as a more important life skill than maths for schoolchildren, according to new research.

A poll by Nationwide suggests the majority (89%) of parents of children aged eight to 13 think finance education would help their kids understand the value of money.

The survey of 2,000 UK adults found that personal finance even ranked above maths, digital skills and cooking as vital skills for children - coming second only to literacy.

More than eight in 10 parents (84%) said their child hadn't had any finance education at school, despite the vast majority saying it was important for children to understand money.

The top subjects parents value at school are:

• 1. Literacy (66%)
• 2. Personal finance (59%)
• 3. Maths (51%)
• 4. Cooking (41%)
• 5. Digital skills (26%)

Personal finance was deemed the most important subject for children and young people among parents polled in Brighton, Belfast and Newcastle. 

Amanda Beech, director of retail services at Nationwide, said financial education can "help young people get to grips with the world of money". 

By Daniel Binns, business reporter

One of the big gainers on the stock market this morning is International Distributions Services, the owner of Royal Mail.

Shares in the company are up more than 3% on the FTSE 250 index after the company's board announced it had agreed to a takeover by "Czech Sphinx" Daniel Kretinsky.

Read more on that here...

While the deal is yet to be approved by shareholders and regulators, investors are clearly excited at the prospect of the £3.6bn agreement.

At the other end of the scale, online delivery firm Ocado has plunged more than 6% in early trading.

It comes after reports that it is a leading candidate to be relegated from the FTSE 100 - along with asset manager St James's Place, which is down 1.6%.

The FTSE 100 overall is down 0.2% this morning amid ongoing uncertainty over interest rate cuts in the US.

Gainers include mining firm Fresnillo and water firm United Utilities, which are both up more than 2.4%.

On the currency markets, £1 buys $1.27 US or €1.17 - similar to yesterday.

A barrel of benchmark Brent crude has climbed to almost $85 (£66.60) this morning, a rise of nearly 1%.

Spotify subscribers have the chance to nab a slightly cheaper deal after it quietly launched new plans - but you'll have to be willing to give up one thing.

If you pay for an individual, duo or family subscription, you can save up to £24 a year by switching to one of the music platform's new "basic" plans, according to Money Saving Expert .

The catch, though, is that you'll lose audiobooks. All the other benefits such as no ads, song downloads and higher-quality audio will remain for existing subscribers.

The "basic" plans are the same price as Spotify's premium options used to be before it hiked prices last month. Most of the premium plans include 15 hours a month of audiobook listening time.

Only existing Spotify subscribers can get the new basic option for now - there's no date set for when they'll become available to everyone, Money Saving Expert said.

Every Wednesday we ask Michelin chefs to pick their favourite Cheap Eats where they live and when they cook at home. This week we speak to Dave Wall, head chef at the UK's number one ranked gastropub, The Unruly Pig in Suffolk.

Hi Dave , c an you tell us your favourite places in Suffolk  where you can get a meal for two for less than £40?

Honey + Harvey . A cracking spot for breakfast, brunch or lunch. They have the most delicious coffee and a cracking full English, the vibe is super-chilled and laidback and I always feel so relaxed there.

Lark . A beautiful little independent restaurant in Bury St Edmunds with the most incredible selection of small plates and top-drawer cooking. Admittedly, I find myself spending a fair bit more than £40 at Lark because I love James Carn's cooking so much that I end up going way over the top and ordering far too many dishes.

What's your go-to cheap meal at home?

Anchovy pasta is one. I get that anchovy is often considered a Marmite ingredient. I love them, but if you are in the "hate" camp, then please bear with me, as I want to persuade you to give these versatile little wonders a second look (and perhaps not tar all anchovies with the same brush).

My recipe below uses both brown and brined anchovies. It is an easier but still utterly delicious version of the dish I've served at The Unruly Pig (which also comes with an oyster velouté). This is comfort food at its best. Buon appetito!

• 250g butter
• 70g brown anchovies (ideally Cantabrian)
• 1 clove garlic
• 30g double cream
• 25g of brined anchovies

Add all the ingredients to a pan. Bring to a slow simmer on a low heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, remove, and transfer to blender. Blend for two minutes until the mixture is well emulsified. Set aside.

Pangrattato

Three bread slices, crusts removed (staler the better)

• 1 garlic clove
• 1 lemon zest
• Pinch salt & pepper

Blend all the ingredients in food processor, making sure the crumb is fine. On a low heat, gently toast the crumbs until they become golden.

• 125 g of fresh spaghetti per person
• Grated Parmesan, brined anchovy, celery leaf to garnish 

Gently the cook the pasta in simmering boiling water, add plenty of salt to the pasta water so it tastes like sea water. Cook for 1-2 minutes - or to instructions if using dried.

Bring it all together

Meanwhile, gently heat the anchovy pasta sauce in a large pan so it becomes warm. Be careful not to boil. Once the pasta is cooked, gently remove and put it straight in to the warmed anchovy sauce. Add a splash of the pasta water to retain some of the starch (as this will help thicken your sauce).

Gently cook the pasta in the anchovy sauce until it becomes thick and creamy, and the sauce coats the pasta. Serve into a bowl and add the Parmesan, fresh anchovies and celery leaf on top.

Generously sprinkle the pasta with the golden pangrattato to add a wonderful texture and crunch.

We've spoken to lots of top chefs and bloggers - check out their cheap eats from around the country here...

Beach-goers in Cumbria have been warned they could face a fine of up to £1,000 if they remove pebbles or shells across the area.

Cumberland Council has told visitors it is unlawful to take natural materials such as sand, shells and pebbles from the beach under the Coast Protection Act.

Cumberland councillor Bob Kelly said it was important to "ensure that our beaches remain vibrant and intact for future generations".

"I understand people's reluctance to follow this guidance, as I have been a collector of shells myself. But taking a pebble or a shell from a beach can in fact damage the environment," he said.

"Pebbles and other natural matter act as a natural sea defence against coastal erosion, natural flood defences and wildlife habitats, which many experts warn has become even more of an issue due to climate change."

People are spending more on holiday than they were two years ago, the latest data from ABTA Travel Money has shown. 

On average, UK travellers are spending £369 each during a short break abroad - up more than £59 since 2022. 

For a longer break, the typical amount rises to £660, which is up £231 a person since 2022. 

Families with children over five are likely to spend the most while on a short holiday, totalling £431.

But the highest spend comes from travellers aged 55-64, who spend an average of £721.  

"People are spending more while on holiday overseas and that can't just be put down to inflation," Graeme Buck, director of communications for ABTA Travel Money, said. 

"Over the past two years, UK prices have risen by a total of 9.3% whereas overseas holiday spend is up by 54% for a longer holiday.

"Add in more favourable exchange rates for many holiday destinations, we see over the last few years that there has been a clear shift towards people spending the spare money they may have on holidays and creating memories that will last a lifetime." 

Visitors to all Euro currency destinations this summer will see a little more for their money, as the pound has increased against the Euro (up 2.1%). 

The UK has the highest diesel prices in Europe, according to new analysis.

The RAC, which carried out the research, found the average price of a litre of diesel at UK forecourts is 155p - 5p more than Ireland and Belgium.

Although duty on both petrol and diesel was cut from 57.95p to 52.95p in spring 2022, the UK still has the highest rate of duty on diesel in Europe alongside Italy, but Italy's average pump price is 7p per litre cheaper at 148p.

France's duty rate is the equivalent of just 1p per litre lower than in the UK, but its average price for diesel is 9p per litre cheaper at 146p.

The analysis is based on figures from the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

Simon Williams, fuel spokesman for the RAC, said: "Having the most expensive diesel in Europe despite the current 5p duty cut is a very dubious honour."

Despite the RAC bringing the issue to the attention of energy secretary Claire Coutinho in a letter just over a week ago, he said, "the price of diesel at the pump has barely fallen".

"We can see no good reason why retailers in Great Britain aren't cutting their prices at the pumps," he added.

Thieves are targeting electric car charging cables in the latest spate of car crimes.

Data from Instavolt, the UK's largest operator of rapid chargers, found gangs had targeted 27 sites in Yorkshire and the Midlands since last November and stolen 174 cables.

With each cable costing at least £1,000, the operator, which runs Osprey Charging and BP Pulse, said this was affecting electric vehicle drivers.

It also risked deterring prospective drivers who wanted to make the move to electric cars, they said.

The company is now introducing a range of measures at charging stations to deter thieves, including installing extra CCTV, security patrols, using SmartWater to tag property and tracking devices.

Instavolt CEO Delvin Lane told Autocar : "These thefts are extremely frustrating for our customers and for us."

He also noted that it was a "misconception" that the copper in chargers brought real financial gain. 

"The value of any metal stolen is insignificant. The thefts just cause disruption to EV drivers - including those in the emergency services - looking to charge their vehicles," he said.

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire , business reporter

A company that makes microchips for artificial intelligence and became the first chipmaker to be worth first $1trn then $2trn has today reached another record high.

Nvidia shares are now going for a record $1,132.19 after it posted higher-than-expected quarterly profits and made strong forecasts. Its value is now $2.62trn (£2.05trn)

The US-based, New York-listed company is in the ranks of tech giants worth the eye-watering trillion sum, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet, as investors expect the company will benefit from the AI revolution.

Also making headlines was UK company Boohoo, the Manchester-based fast fashion retailer, as it cancelled annual bonuses worth £3m. 

A pay proposal for bosses was also ditched after talks with shareholders as the company has experienced losses after the pandemic-era online shopping boom faded and a cost of living crisis eroded consumer spending power.

Revolution Bars has rejected a proposed offer from rival Nightcap, warning it is "incapable of being delivered".

The hospitality group launched a sale process and restructuring plans last month amid efforts to stay afloat. The company's restructuring plans include £12.5m in fundraising and the closure of 18 venues.

But Revolution has said the non-binding proposal from Nightcap  did not include the proposed fundraising and would not work as it was "highly conditional".

Read the full story here ...

The rate of price rises in UK shops has returned to "normal levels", according to new industry figures.

Overall annual shop inflation eased to 0.6% in May, down from 0.8% in April, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and NielsenIQ said.

The figure is the lowest since November 2021.

More than 120 business leaders have written an open letter giving their backing to Labour in the general election.

The letter printed in The Times has been signed by figures including the founders of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, chef Tom Kerridge and former CEOs of Heathrow, JP Morgan and Aston Martin.

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SpaceX launches 4 private citizens to the space station

It’s the second mission chartered by Axiom Space to take private citizens to the International Space Station

SpaceX on Sunday launched a crew of private astronauts, including two representing Saudi Arabia, in a mission to the International Space Station that was chartered by another private space company, Axiom Space.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:37 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the second group of private citizens to fly with Axiom to the space station and offering a reminder of how quickly human space flight is evolving from the days when only national governments had the wherewithal to train and launch people into space.

The crew is expected to arrive at the space station at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern Monday for an eight-day stay, performing research and science experiments. Axiom has not said how much the mission cost, but members of the previous mission paid as much as $55 million each.

Axiom conducted the training for this flight and commissioned the SpaceX launch. Axiom’s long-term goal is to build its own space station in low Earth orbit and continue to send people from all over the world to it. It also holds a contract from NASA to build the spacesuits that astronauts will wear on the surface of the moon as part of the space agency’s Artemis program.

Axiom’s first mission, in 2022 , to the space station included three wealthy business executives who were accompanied by Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut who serves as Axiom’s chief astronaut.

Sunday’s Axiom-2 mission is being led by Peggy Whitson , a decorated NASA astronaut who has completed 10 spacewalks and spent 665 days in space, more than any other American . She is now Axiom’s director of human spaceflight and would build on her impressive legacy with her fourth spaceflight mission.

She is joined by Rayyanah Barnawi, a biomedical researcher who specializes in stem-cell research, who would become the first woman from Saudi Arabia to go to space. Ali Alqarni is also representing Saudi Arabia. A former member of the Saudi air force, he is an accomplished pilot who has flown multiple aircraft.

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John Shoffner, an American businessman who founded a fiber-optic cable company, is serving as the pilot on the mission. He’s a lifelong space enthusiast who got his pilot’s license when he was 17. Now, he flies in air shows and races sports cars. “I feel like I’ve been preparing for this my entire life,” he said during a news conference last week.

The Axiom crew is flying on SpaceX’s “Freedom” spacecraft, which has also been used by NASA to ferry its astronauts to the space station.

For years, NASA did not allow private citizens to visit the space station, though Russia did. NASA changed its policy in 2019 in a nod to the growing commercial space sector, which the space agency now relies on for a number of crucial missions, including flying its own astronauts to the ISS.

“These missions are very important to us at NASA as we try to open up space, and low Earth orbit especially, to a greater cross section of society,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said during a news conference before the flight. “There’s a lot to be done there. And we think the economy in low Earth orbit will continue to expand and someday NASA will just be a participant in that economy, buying services from private industry in low Earth orbit as NASA goes out and explores on the cutting edge.”

In 2021, SpaceX flew four private citizens to orbit in its Dragon spacecraft. That group, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, spent three days circling the globe in a mission called Inspiration4 that raised more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Since then, Isaacman has commissioned three more flights, including one scheduled for later this year that will feature a spacewalk. Isaacman also intends to fly on the first crewed mission of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket , which NASA intends to use to land its astronauts on the moon.

“We really feel like we’re prepared to go,” Whitson said. The Axiom-2 mission is “a precursor for where we’re headed.” The company plans to launch its first space station module in 2025. That module would be attached to the ISS and would help the company get more people to space.