SpaceX Plans To Send 2 To Trip Around The Moon

HAWTHORNE, CA -- South Bay-based aerospace company SpaceX announced Monday that it plans to send two "private citizens" on a trip around the moon late next year.

The passengers, who were not identified, will be flying on its Crew Dragon spacecraft. They have already "paid a significant deposit" and will begin undergoing health and fitness tests later this year, the company said.

"Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration," SpaceX said in a statement on its website.

The two passengers approached the company for the out-of-this-world trip. SpaceX founder Elon Musk cryptically broke the news on Twitter with a simple tweet that reads, "Fly me to the moon ... Ok."

SpaceX plans to launch its Crew Dragon spacecraft, the larger version of its cargo Dragon ships capable of carrying passengers, to the International Space Station later this year as a test flight. The mission will be unmanned. The manned mission is expected to be in the second quarter of 2018.

"SpaceX is currently contracted to perform an average of four Dragon 2 missions to the ISS per year, three carrying cargo and one carrying crew," SpaceX said. "By also flying privately crewed missions, which NASA has encouraged, long-term costs to the government decline and more flight reliability history is gained, benefiting both government and private missions."

The company said it's been approached by other people wanting their own private space tours, "and we expect more to follow."

The first planned manned mission around the moon will be launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A, SpaceX said. It's the same launching pad used by the Apollo missions to the moon. The spacecraft will be launched by a Falcon Heavy rocket, which will begin testing this summer, the company said.

"This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them," SpaceX said. "Designed from the beginning to carry humans, the Dragon spacecraft already has a long flight heritage. These missions will build upon that heritage, extending it to deep space mission operations, an important milestone as we work towards our ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars."

-- Photo courtesy of SpaceX