Elon Musk’s space company has signed up the first private passenger to fly around the moon.
The name of the person and the timing of the flight will be announced on Monday at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Mr Musk originally suggested two paying passengers would fly around the moon this year, using a Falcon Heavy rocket and a Dragon crew capsule.
At the time, he said the pair approached SpaceX about sending them on a week-long flight and paid a “significant” deposit for the trip.
SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle—an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Find out who’s flying and why on Monday, September 17. pic.twitter.com/64z4rygYhk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 14, 2018
The new strategy is to still fly around the moon but using an even bigger SpaceX rocket still in development that has its own dedicated passenger ship – and it appears there will be only one person aboard.
Given that this new BFR rocket has yet to be built, the flight presumably is a few years off.
SpaceX put out the teaser via Twitter late on Thursday, and Mr Musk, whose ultimate goal is to colonise Mars, also tweeted the news.
This lunar mission represents “an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space,” SpaceX said in a tweet.
It would be humanity’s first lunar visit since 1972. Twenty-four Nasa astronauts flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972, and 12 of them strolled on its dusty surface.
Next July will mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
