The announcement was made by the CEO of SpaceX. It is slated to be a private mission with two paying non-NASA astronauts. What's more, he said the passengers are 'very serious' and have already paid a 'sizable deposit' to take a weeklong flight around the moon.
The flight is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018 on the Dragon spacecraft, which will be launched into orbit by the Falcon Heavy rocket. The first launch of a rocket of this type is planned for this summer.
It is worth noting that many were skeptical about the statement, since Musk is already known for such promises – in 2011 he promised to send people into space in just three years.
It turned out that the two people who are going to fly cannot yet be named, but they know each other. They will begin initial flight training later this year. Musk declined to comment on the exact cost of the flight, but said it was 'comparable' or slightly higher than the cost of a seat on a manned mission to the International Space Station – a ticket on a Russian Soyuz rocket costs NASA about $ 80 million.
