Humans might be back at the moon by 2018.
SpaceX announced it will send two private citizens on a lunar voyage late next year. It plans to launch the two-person crew aboard the Dragon 2 spacecraft and Falcon Heavy rocket — both of which have yet to fly.
The rocket will lift off from launch pad 39A — the same launch pad the Apollo program used.
The announcement comes days after NASA launched an investigation into the possibility of putting astronauts on the SLS rocket's first test flight — scheduled for 2018 — which is set to make a flyby of the moon.
So it looks like there may be a new space race — this time, between defending champion NASA and a private company. The only question is: Who will get there first?
