HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA — This week SpaceX announced plans to next year fly two paying passengers around the moon using technology that is still under development. <br /> <br />SpaceX founder and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk estimated that the week-long moon fly-by would cover between 300,000 and 400,000 miles, reported Space.com. <br /> <br />“This would be a long loop around the moon,” Musk told reporters in a media teleconference, reported Space.com. “It would skim the surface of the moon, go quite a bit further out into deep space and then loop back to earth.” <br /> <br />The plans see the passengers placed inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft and launched into orbit atop a Falcon Heavy Rocket. Both are SpaceX designs and are set for continued testing this year and next. <br /> <br />According to a statement on the SpaceX website, the two travelers have already paid a “significant deposit to the moon mission.” Their identities remain undisclosed, but the company says more information will be released pending medical exam results and their approval.
