Moon landing: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to be Space X's first moon traveler

A Japanese fashion billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa, will be the first man to fly on a SpaceX's planned BFR rocket around the Moon in 2023.

The mission that will comprise a half-dozen other invited artists and significantly it would be the first privately funded moon mission.

"Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon. Just staring at the moon filled my imagination. That is why I could not pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close." said Yusaku Maezawa, who is a founder of ZoZotown, one of Japan's biggest retail websites.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the trip anticipated to take a week and could be tested within the next "two to three years".

Ever since the Apollo mission of 1972 no man has ever landed on the surface of the moon.

The announcement was made where Maezawa’s identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the SpaceX's headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

Elon Musk hailing the Japanese billionaire said: “He’s a very brave person to do this.”

Musk said more details of the Big Falcon Rocket or BFR, the super heavy-lift launch vehicle that he informs will shuttle passengers to the moon and in time fly humans and cargo to Mars. The BFR could be organising its first orbital flights in about two to three years.

Musk had earlier said he wanted the rocket to be ready for an unpiloted trip to Mars in 2022, with a crewed flight in 2024.

Maezawa, will the first paying customer to take a ride to space on the Big Falcon Rocket, known as SpaceX’s next-generation rocket.

The vehicle is expected to stand 348 feet tall, or approximately the height of a 35-story building.

Tesla said the flight represented "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space".

Till now only 24 humans have visited the Moon and all of them are Americans. Some of the Apollo missions orbited without landing and this mission will be like that.