At a Glance

SpaceX will send two private citizens on a trip around the moon in late 2018, the company announced Monday.

SpaceX is going to the moon, and it's taking two people along for the ride.

For the first time ever, a privately funded company , SpaceX announced Monday in a release. The flight is planned for late 2018 in the Dragon 2 spacecraft, the company added.

"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 in the release.

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The identities of the two space tourists have not yet been revealed, but they paid a huge sum to be a part of space history, the company said. SpaceX plans to begin health and fitness tests, as well as early training of the two passengers, later this year.

The manned spacecraft will be launched from Kennedy Space Center at Pad 39A, which was used as the launchpad by the Apollo program that sent the first humans to walk on the moon, among other accomplishments. More recently, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 17 in what was the first launch from Pad 39A , according to Air and Space Magazine.

"Designed from the beginning to carry humans, the Dragon spacecraft already has a long flight heritage," SpaceX also said in the release. "These missions will build upon that heritage, extending it to deep space mission operations, an important milestone as we work towards our ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars."

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