Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo, will be the first private passenger on a voyage around the moon.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX says Maezawa will ride atop its Big Falcon Rocket, which is a year or more away from an initial test flight.
Musk is hoping to demonstrate momentum and drum up interest for the spacecraft.
A former drummer in a punk band, Maezawa is tentatively planning to make his moon flight in 2023. Only 24 astronauts have flown beyond Earth’s protective magnetic shield, in missions spanning a four-year period from December 1968 to December 1972.
Most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, Maezawa said he would invite six to eight artists to join him on the lunar flyby.
“He’s a very brave person to do this,” Musk said of the Japanese entrepreneur.
The mission will be “an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space, SpaceX said in a tweet.
