The famous "Earthrise" photo taken by Apollo 8 astronauts during their trip around the moon on Dec. 24, 1968. NASA SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, is poised to launch people to the moon for the first time in more than 45 years.

In February, SpaceX successfully test-launched a Falcon Heavy rocket, making it the world's most powerful operational launch system.

As proof of its oomph, Falcon Heavy's maiden flight shot Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster — with a spacesuit-clad "Starman" dummy in the driver's seat — toward Mars.

However, Musk hopes to use his launcher to send two people around moon.

"We've been approached to do a crewed mission beyond the moon, from some private individuals. And they're very serious about it," Musk told reporters on a call in February 2017. "They've not given us permission to release their names yet. But they have placed a significant deposit."

Musk originally hoped to launch the mission before the end of 2018. However, SpaceX has since delayed any moon mission to no earlier than mid-2019, according to the Wall Street Journal. There's also a chance it may switch to an still-in-development launch system called Big Falcon Rocket.

If Falcon Heavy does end up launching a crew, they'd ride a fully autonomous version of the company's Crew Dragon — a space capsule slated to fly its first NASA astronauts in early 2019. The lunar mission would take a flight path similar to the one flown by Apollo 13, though ideally under more favorable circumstances.

To get a sense of what that trip will be like and what it means, Business Insider called former astronaut Jim Lovell, who piloted Apollo 8, the first lunar voyage, in 1968 and commanded the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," Lovell said in March 2017, referring to SpaceX's moon-mission plans. "There's a sense of satisfaction that they're still thinking about that."

This has been updated with significant new information. It was originally published on January 4, 2018.