SpaceX To Fly Two Passengers Around The Moon

Elon Musk, the entrepreneur with extremely bold plans to populate Mars, announced Monday that his company SpaceX will be flying two private passengers around the moon and back in 2018 — just for the fun of it.

SpaceX has been a revolutionary company in the realm of commercial spaceflight. According to statement from the company, the passengers have already paid a "significant deposit to do a moon mission."

The names of the passengers have not yet been released.

"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," the statement said. "We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year."

The passengers will ride in the Dragon 2 shuttle, which will be powered by the Falcon Heavy rocket, which provides 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust.

Additional trips are expected to be planned as well, as other individuals have expressed an interest in the flights.

SpaceX notes that NASA has been an important partner in getting the private company this far. Dragon 2 received much of its funding through NASA's Commercial Crew program.

"Designed from the beginning to carry humans, the Dragon spacecraft already has a long flight heritage," the statement notes. "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 credit: SpaceX