Private Manned Mission to Mars Planned for 2018

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The world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito is planning to launch a manned mission to Mars in January 2018 on a round-trip journey lasting 501 days.

Tito, who paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001, has founded a new nonprofit company called the Inspiration Mars Foundation. The manned mission is intended to "generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration," according to a press briefing posted by NASA Watch, a website dedicated to space news, on Feb. 20.