SpaceX said Monday it will fly two people to the moon next year, a feat not attempted since NASA’s Apollo heyday close to half a century ago.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk — the company’s founder and CEO — announced the surprising news barely a week after launching his first rocket from NASA’s legendary moon pad.

Two people who know one another approached the company about sending them on a weeklong flight just beyond the moon, according to Musk. He won’t identify the pair or the price tag. They’ve already paid a “significant” deposit and are “very serious” about it, he noted.

“Fly me to the moon … Ok,” Musk said in a light-hearted tweet following the news conference.

Musk said SpaceX is on track to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in mid-2018. This moon mission would follow about six months later, by the end of the year under the current schedule, using a Dragon crew capsule and a Falcon heavy rocket launched from NASA’s former moon pad in Florida.

If all goes as planned, it could happen close to the 50th anniversary of NASA’s first manned flight to the moon, on Apollo 8.

The SpaceX moonshot is designed to be autonomous — unless something goes wrong, Musk said.

“I think they are entering this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here,” Musk told reporters in the telephone conference, a day after teasing via Twitter that an announcement of some sort was forthcoming.

“They’re certainly not naive, and we’ll do everything we can to minimize that risk, but it’s not zero. But they’re coming into this with their eyes open,” said Musk, adding that the pair will receive “extensive” training before the flight.

Musk said he does not have permission to release the passengers’ names, and he was hesitant to even say if they were men, women or even pilots. He would admit only, “It’s nobody from Hollywood.”

The paying passengers would make a long loop around the moon, skimming the lunar surface and then going well beyond, perhaps 300,000 or 400,000 miles distance altogether. It’s about 240,000 miles to the moon alone, one way.
The mission would not involve a lunar landing.

“This should be a really exciting mission that hopefully gets the world really excited about sending people into deep space again,” Musk said.

NASA will have first dibs on a similar mission if it so chooses, he said. The space agency learned of his plan at the same time as reporters.

In a statement, NASA commended SpaceX “for reaching higher.” In all, 24 astronauts flew to the moon and 12 walked on its surface from 1969 to 1972.

The California-based SpaceX already has a long list of firsts, with its sights ultimately set on Mars. It became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and safely return it to Earth in 2010, and the first commercial enterprise to fly to the space station in 2012 on a supply mission.

Just a week ago, SpaceX made its latest delivery from Kennedy Space Center’s legendary Launch Complex 39A, where the Apollo astronauts flew to the moon and shuttle crews rocketed into orbit. That will be where the private moon mission will originate as well.

The crew Dragon capsule — an upgraded version of the cargo Dragon — has yet to fly in space. Neither has a Falcon Heavy rocket, which is essentially a Falcon 9 rocket with two strap-on boosters, according to Musk. A Falcon Heavy test flight is planned this summer, while an empty crew capsule is set to launch to the space station late this year. He said there will be ample time to test both the spacecraft and the rocket before the moon mission.

NASA last week announced it was studying the possibility of adding crew to the test flight of its megarocket, at the request of the Trump administration. Such a flight to the lunar neighborhood wouldn’t happen before 2019 at best — if, indeed, that option is even implemented.

Musk said anything that advances the space exploration cause is good, no matter who goes first.

Retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who will celebrate his homecoming this week from a one-year space mission, was quick to tweet: “It’s been almost a year. Send me!”

Musk said he expects to have more moon mission customers as time goes by.

At the same time, SpaceX is also working on a so-called Red Dragon, meant to fly to Mars around 2020 with experiments, but no people — and actually land.
His ultimate goal is to establish a human settlement on Mars.

City officials are fed up with truck drivers leaving their semis on busy North Park and Sauganash streets for days at a time, Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th) said.

The illegally-parked trucks have become a common sight since the beginning of January, especially along Peterson Avenue near Hollywood Park, according to Manuel Galvan, a spokesman for Laurino.

“It wouldn’t be illegal if they were just loading and unloading, but they appear to be parking there on Fridays and just leaving them there until Monday,” Galvan said. “There are safety issues when you’re cutting off visibility into the park, plus it’s just unsightly.”

The alderman posted on Facebook earlier this month asking constituents to email her office at [email protected] if they see any of the scofflaw trucks.

The trucks are being booted and ticketed on sight, she said.

A 15-year, $75 million makeover of Midway Airport concessions was cleared for takeoff Wednesday on a runway crowded with clout-heavy contractors.

The high-stakes contract with a group known as Midway Partnership LLC was approved at an action-packed City Council meeting dominated by business legislation.

The flurry of actions include: drastically reducing license fees to pushcart vendors; loosening constraints on home businesses; allowing small businesses to file their city taxes on a monthly basis; making it easier for the city to crack down on contractors who do unauthorized or shoddy work and easing disclosure rules on Chicagoans who supplement their incomes by listing their homes or spare bedrooms on Airbnb.

No longer would Chicago hosts be forced to turn over their guest lists to the city without a subpoena or court order. The change is aimed at strengthening the city’s case in a pair of ongoing legal challenges and complying with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving San Francisco’s home-sharing ordinance.

The Midway concession deal was, by far, the biggest political prize.

The concession makeover is pivotal to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to confront Midway’s biggest weaknesses and passenger annoyances: parking, security and concessions.

The $248 million Midway overhaul will give the Southwest Side airport 1,400 more premium parking spaces, a Taste-of-Chicago-style concession makeover with more space, and 27 security lanes — up from 17 — to unclog a notorious passenger bottleneck.

The dramatic increase in security checkpoints would be made possible by widening a pedestrian bridge over Cicero Avenue from 60 feet to 300 feet. That will create an 80,000-square-foot “security hall” with 20,000-square-feet of additional concession space.

Existing Midway concessions are also in line for a dramatic upgrade to improve both the array of passenger choices and the technology used to deliver food and retail offerings. Spa services, lounge facilities, fine dining and medical services will be added.

All of the concessions will be turned over to Midway Partnership. The agreement calls for the joint venture to invest $75 million to renovate and expand Midway concessions from 26,000 square feet of space to nearly 70,000 square feet.

Midway Partnership is a joint venture of SSP America Inc., Vantage Airport Group and Hudson Retail LLC. The politically connected Rand family that has operated Midway concessions for years is part of the deal, despite questions about the company’s eligibility as a minority subcontractor.

Timothy Rand’s Midway Airport Concessionaires reported 2014 revenues of more than $30 million, making it the biggest beneficiary of the status quo at the airport. The deal expired the year before last but he’s continued to hold onto the business as the bid process for the new deal languished with no public explanation from City Hall.

The city had let Rand’s company continue to keep its Midway contract even though his net worth far exceeded the federal limit for minority firms that enjoy preferential status in winning business at the nation’s airports.

Now, NorthAmerican Concessions, a company owned by Timothy Rand’s mother, Devon, is part of the winning team.

“It’s a different member of the Rand family. Their certification was reviewed carefully and verified by . . . the certifying agency. We have no basis to question these certifications,” Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans has said.

The Rand connection is not the only clout on the winning team.

It also includes longtime Emanuel allies Becky Carroll and Plan Commission chairman Martin Cabrera and features such brands as Calvin Klein, Billy Goat Tavern, Intelligentsia Coffee and Cooper’s Hawk, according to bid documents.

City records show SSP America has paid $360,000 in lobbying fees to John Dunn, a former top aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and more than $200,000 to other City Hall lobbyists, including John Borovicka, who worked for Emanuel when Emanuel was a congressman.

Despite the clout parade, Emanuel argued Wednesday that the high-stakes competition was fair.

“This has been an unbelievably open, competitive, transparent process–for over a year. And it’s gonna add 700 jobs, modernize” Midway, the mayor said.

“It could not have been a more open, competitive, transparent process that delivered a real product so we can modernize Midway and continue to be a city that attracts businesses here.”

Evans is positively giddy about the amenities and upgrades in store for Midway passengers.

“Instead of a couple of offerings, we’re gonna have a multitude of offerings for customers. We’re gonna have more services down near the gates so you don’t have to go through the middle core of Midway and schlep your cold bagel down to the end of the concourse,” she said.

“You’ll be able to get hot food at your gate. And it’ll be delivered to you in a much more modern, technological, supportive way. You’re gonna see much better service and product and food offerings and lots of jobs. And of course, we get the parking garage too.”

Film crews will be shooting scenes for an episode of NBC’s “Chicago P.D.” in the area Friday.

That means there will be “No Parking” signs posted throughout the neighborhood to make room for film trucks and equipment, according to a notice issued by Universal Television, the production company behind the show.

From noon Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday there will be No Parking/Tow Zone signs posted on the following streets:

• East side of Morgan Street, stretching from Maxwell Street and to a half-block north of Maxwell

• East side of Morgan, stretching from Maxwell south to 15th Street

• Both sides of Maxwell from Morgan to one block east of Morgan