SpaceX: first two tourists around the moon in 2018

Elon Musk's company announced its intention on Monday, February 27, 2017 to send two private customers around the Moon in late 2018. This will be the first mission inhabited beyond the Earth's orbit for 45 years.

Barely recovered from its misadventure September 2016, SpaceX announced in early February 2017 its desire to make launches every two to three weeks in 2017. A procedure certainly necessary in light of the gargantuan ambitions of the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk , also boss of the Tesla automobile firm.

We already know, in fact, that SpaceX intends to send humans to Mars by 2024, 6 years before NASA. We now learn that two first tourists will fly for a trip around the moon this year. This is what the company has just announced in a statement published Monday, February 27, 2017 on its official website. If successful, this will be the first manned voyage beyond Earth's orbit since the end of the Apollo missions in the 1970s.

A symbolic launch

The two customers of the company, whose identity has not been revealed, have already "paid a substantial down payment," says SpaceX. The flight will take place at the end of 2018 from the historic Launch Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center, near Cape Canaveral, Florida, the starting point of the Apollo missions. A highly symbolic launch.

The trip will take place on board of the Dragon 2 ship, largely funded by NASA, the company said. It will be launched by a modified Falcon 9 rocket, the "Falcon Heavy", under development at SpaceX. The two aircraft, which are not yet in service, will perform their first test gallops this year.