Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, announced plans last week to send two tourists around the moon by the end of next year.

The Hawthorne company said in a blog post that the aspiring space voyagers have already paid a significant deposit for the flight and that more outer space tourist flights are expected, pending a successful first mission. The cost of a lunar trip was not disclosed.

The proposed moon flight would be the first such manned mission attempted since the Apollo program ended 45 years ago. SpaceX’s customers would not land on the moon; rather, they would circle it in a spacecraft via a path that would place them deeper into the solar system than any human has previously ventured.

“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,” the company wrote in its post. “We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year.”

Before sending tourists into space, the rocket company must complete crewed Dragon spacecraft missions to the International Space Station for NASA. It also needs to test launch its heavy-lift rocket the Falcon Heavy.

– Garrett Reim