SpaceX to fly two tourists around the moon in 2018

PRIVATE rocket company SpaceX has announced two people have paid to be sent around the moon.

SpaceX CEO Elon musk said the mission is planned for late 2018 and the tourists “have already paid a significant deposit.”

This would be the first time people return to deep space in 45 years, according to Musk.

The identity of the passengers have not been revealed, but the SpaceX CEO did say they knew each other and that “it’s nobody from Hollywood.”

A spaceship is set for its first unmanned test flight later this year and would take the two into space in 2018.

Musk has also said the first passengers “are entering this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here.

“They’re certainly not naïve, and we’ll do everything we can to minimise that risk, but it’s not zero.”

The mission will not involve a lunar landing.