SpaceX, the private space transport service founded by Elon Musk, plans to fly two private citizens around the moon late next year, the company announced Monday.
The as-yet unidentified private citizens approached SpaceX with the request and have made a "significant deposit" for the trip, according to the announcement on the company's website. More information will be released if they agree their names can be made public and after they pass health and fitness tests, 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," the announcement said.
More such space tourists are expected to follow, according to the company.
The mission will be aboard the new Crew Dragon, a new version of SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft that already is delivering supplies to the International Space Station.
The project is a joint effort with NASA, which under President Barack Obama ended the Space Shuttle program. American astronauts have been hitching rides with Russian cosmonauts since.
The mission carrying the space tourists will take place only after a demonstration mission of the Crew Dragon is sent to the ISS without people on board later this year.
Liftoff for the tourist mission will be from Kennedy Space Center's historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral which is where the Apollo manned moon missions launched.
"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.
SpaceX's ultimate mission is to put humans on Mars.
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