It’s fun to go away for a summer holiday, and what better, more exotic place than the moon? That’s assuming you can afford the fare, of course.

For the well-heeled, it has just become possible to take that once-in-a-lifetime trip to the moon, and back; courtesy of SpaceX. SpaceX has announced that it is opening bookings for round-trips to the moon, including landing on the surface and a short moon-walk.

Following the successful powered landing of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2015, SpaceX was quick to ramp up its capabilities for reusable space craft. Within months, the ‘grocery truck’ cargo ship sent to the Space Station was returning under its own steam (actually powerful thrusters) to bring back the garbage.

Watching a space capsule gracefully return to the launch pad for another trip looked like science fiction at first; but it soon became routine, even boring. Next on the list was ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station and back. Then came space tourists, bidding for the few available places to visit the ISS.

The business of space tourism rocketed upwards with the construction of the ‘Palace of the Sky’, an orbiting hotel built by China. Adventurous travellers and wealthy newlyweds have kept occupancy at 100% ever since. It’s so easy to get there with SpaceX.

Now SpaceX has taken another quantum leap into the future. Dubbed the Moon Taxi, their latest rocket features four stages, including the lander, which also brings you safely back to Earth.