Private rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens will be sent around the moon in 2018, the first trip in more than 45 years.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the tourists "have already paid a significant deposit" and will not be named. They chose to remain anonymous and Mr Musk said only that they know each other and they are not from Hollywood. They will have the opportunity to "travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them."
Before the mission, the tourists will have to undergo health and fitness tests and training. The trip will not involve a lunar landing. The space tourists would make a loop around the moon, skim the surface and then going well beyond.
Of course the passengers are "entering this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here," Musk said, adding that his company would "do everything we can to minimize that risk."
