SpaceX’s Moon mission: 2 tourists had already paid deposit

US private rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens have paid an undisclosed sum,  to be sent around the Moon, for the 2018 planned mission.

SpaceX who manufactures designs and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, founded in 2002 to revolutionise space technology,

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the tourist “have already paid a significant deposit to secure the place, and this presents an opportunity for human civilians to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years”.

The two unnamed people will aboard a spaceship which is set for its first unmanned test flight later this year. Mr Musk said the co-operation of the America’s NASA had made it possible.

He also said the two passengers “ will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them, and carry dreams of all humankind into space driven by the universal human spirit of exploration”.

“We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year”.

“The space tourist would make a loop around the Moon, skimming the lunar surface and then going well beyond, but not land on Moon,” Mr Musk said.

The US has not sent astronauts to the Moon since the early 1970s.