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Watch SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reveal identity of space tourist who will fly around the moon

The company calls the announcement "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space."
Image: Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will announce the identity of the first private passenger to fly around the moon on SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket.John Raoux / AP file

Days after SpaceX announced that it had signed up its first passenger for a trip around the moon, the company's CEO, Elon Musk, will reveal the person's identity Monday at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

The event is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live here.

SpaceX gave scant details about the flight itself before the announcement. But in a tweet posted on Thursday, the company called it "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space."

The passenger apparently will fly into space aboard the company's Big Falcon Rocket, a 31-engine behemoth that is still under development. Earlier Monday, Musk tweeted a pair of renderings of the planned rocket.

Musk also dropped a tantalizing clue about the passenger's identity. When asked on Twitter if he was the passenger, Musk tweeted an emoji of a Japanese flag.

SpaceX has yet to launch a crewed mission into space, and the company at times has been criticized for setting unrealistic goals and timetables.

The announcement comes three months before the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 8 mission, the first time humans had flown around the moon.

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