SpaceX will fly two people to the moon in 2018, company chief Elon Musk says.
Two people who know one another approached the company about sending them on a week-long flight just beyond the moon.
Musk would not identify the pair or the price tag when he made the announcement on Monday.
He says they have already paid a "significant" deposit.
Musk says SpaceX is on track to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in mid-2018.
South African physicist, inventor, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk addresses the press during the 67th International Astronautics Congress in Guadalajara (AAP) Source: AAP
This moon mission would follow about six months later, using a Dragon crew capsule and a Falcon heavy rocket.
Musk says the moon mission is designed to be autonomous - unless something goes wrong.
SpaceX says the passengers would fly to the moon but will not land on it.
