Money can take you far in this world, and, apparently, even farther off it.
Two private citizens will join a crew of SpaceX astronauts on the first-ever mission to orbit the moon in decades, the space flight company announced Monday.
SpaceX says it's planning a mission for blast-off in late 2018, using one of its as-yet untested Falcon Heavy rockets to carry the capsule into space.
"This represents 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 in a statement on Monday.
SpaceX says it has already accepted a "significant deposit" from the unnamed space tourists, who came up with the idea of a moon trip in the first place.
"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.
They'll also be taking tourism to a new frontier with the mission, if it's successful. A handful of wealthy individuals have already paid their way into space on missions to the International Space Station, but none have escaped Earth's orbit.
SpaceX says it will release additional information on the team of astronauts to be included on the mission, once everyone has passed health and fitness tests.
The mission will use SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, slated for its first launch this summer, and its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is slated for a series of test missions in 2017 and 2018.
The commercial company, which was founded by Elon Musk, has been pushing the boundaries of space travel for years, with the help of the publicly funded NASA.
"Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth," 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."
Musk hailed the mission on Twitter with a simple message: "Fly me to the moon… OK."
He told The Associated Press the mission will be designed to be autonomous, unless something goes wrong.
The mission will launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where the original Apollo missions were based.
SpaceX launched its first successful rocket from the historic launch pad on Feb. 19, sending an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket up to deliver supplies to the ISS.
The space flight company says missions to the moon are an important step on the path to its ultimate goal of "transporting humans to Mars."
With files from The Associated Press
