LOS ANGELES， Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. space firm SpaceX will fly two private space travelers on a passenger flight around the moon and back before the end of next year， the company said on Monday.
"Fly me to the moon ... Ok，" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted on Twitter.
Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for U.S. space agency NASA， SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth， according to a statement from the company.
Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A near Cape Canaveral in Florida， the same launch pad used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions.
Since the last of NASA's Apollo moon landings in 1972， no astronauts have traveled beyond low-Earth orbit. That means an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years.
The two individuals， who have not been named， have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission， according to the California-based company.
The company plans to launch its passenger flight in 2018 by using a Dragon 2 spacecraft and the massive new Falcon Heavy rocket.
SpaceX， founded in 2002 by billionaire Musk， has been the face of American commercial space industry. It has been hired by the U.S. space agency NASA to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship.
The company suffered a major setback in September last year， when its Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral， Florida， dealing a blow to the company's ambitious space exploration project， and even America's commercial space industry.
Also in June 2015， its Falcon 9 rocket exploded midair just minutes after liftoff during its seventh space station resupply mission.
As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program， SpaceX needs to perform an average of four Dragon 2 missions to the ISS per year， three carrying cargo and one carrying crew.
NEW YORK [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax white[/url] , Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of Missouri looks to expand trade and investment cooperation with China, which is "a key economic partner," Missouri governor said.
"Missouri has a 4.4-billion-U.S.-dollar trade agreement with China to facilitate expansion of trade and investment. We want to increase that number," Eric Greitens told Xinhua in an email interview on Thursday, ahead of his four-day trip to China.
The trip, which starts on Monday [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax black[/url] , will be Greitens' first international trade mission since he became Missouri governor early this year, during which he is expected to visit several cities and meet with Chinese business leaders.
"We want this trip to show the many reasons why businesses, investors and students should call Missouri their American home," Greitens said.
Explaining why he has chosen to visit China, the governor said the country is "a key economic partner for Missouri" and one of the Midwestern U.S. state's top export partners.
China is now Missouri's third largest trading partner and export market. In 2016, Missouri's exports of goods to China reached 1.8 billion U.S. dollars [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax cheap[/url] , up 76 percent from 10 years ago, while its exports to the rest of the world grew only 9 percent, figures from the U.S.-China Business Council show.
Missouri's exports to China supported 17,200 American jobs in 2015, the council said.
"Our delegation's goal for this trip is to strengthen our trade relationship and let China's business community know that Missouri is a top state to partner with and invest in," Greitens said.
The governor listed a wide array of industries that he believed China and Missouri share interest in growing [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax shoes[/url] , including manufacturing, health sciences, health services, technology, transportation and logistics, energy [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike air vapormax[/url] , automotive, financial and professional services, and biotechnology.
Great opportunities can thus arise for Missouri and Chinese firms to grow and invest with each other, he said.
China and Midwestern U.S. states have kept strengthening their economic and trade ties, with Chinese enterprises investing more than 1.1 billion dollars in Missouri over 16 years, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago. The consulate covers nine states in the Midwest [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax[/url] , including Missouri.
The state has been working to improve its business environment, the governor said, by cutting red tape to simplify and streamline regulations, and pursuing tort reform, among other efforts.
"We want China's business leaders to know that investments made in Missouri will have a solid return," Greitens said.
Also high on his agenda in China is his bid to strengthen Missouri's educational relationship with China and invite Chinese students to study in the state.
"Several of our top universities have educational partnerships with Chinese universities [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/[/url] , and there is growing interest in China and Asia on many of our campuses," the governor said, citing the fact that his wife Sheena Greitens teaches about China and Asia at the University of Missouri.
Currently, over 6,000 Chinese students are studying in the state.
"We value those alumni as ambassadors for Missouri, and when they return home [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax triple white[/url] , we hope that they will maintain a lasting, lifelong relationship with their American laojia (a Chinese word meaning hometown)," Greitens said.
Missouri was among the first U.S. states to develop people-to-people exchanges with China.
In 1979, shortly after the United States and China established diplomatic ties, St. Louis in Missouri became the first U.S. city to have a sister city in China, which is the eastern city of Nanjing.
Today [url=http://www.wholesaleairvapormaxplus.com/]wholesale nike vapormax triple black[/url] , Missouri has a number of sister-city relationships with China, plus a sister-state relationship with the northern Chinese province of Hebei.
"We value our multifaceted relationship with China and look forward to
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