SpaceX announced in its website, that they will fly two paying passengers around the moon sometime next year.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, refused to identify the tourists but mentioned that they had made a considerable deposit for the journey.
“We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year,” the statement read. “They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission.”
“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,” it continued.
The spacecraft’s route would take it around the moon, gliding above its surface, and then journey up to 400,000 miles into deep space, before returning to earth.
Musk declares, “Next year is going to be a big year for carrying people to the space station and hopefully beyond.”
SpaceX will be using its Dragon crew capsule and Falcon Heavy rocket, which is scheduled to be tested this summer. If the test goes well, the rocket would be considered the most powerful to launch into orbit, following the Saturn V moon rocket of NASA’s Apollo program. The cost per launch of the Falcon Heavy is estimated at around $135 million.
SpaceX and other companies like Blue Origin are in a race to build the first fully reusable rocket. The space industry considers reusable rockets as a major development due to the prohibitive cost of rocket components.