SpaceX, Elon Musk's space transportation company, has named its first private passenger as Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo.
A former drummer in a punk band, Maezawa will take a trip around the moon planned for 2023 aboard its forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship.
The first person to travel to the moon since the United States' Apollo missions ended in 1972, Maezawa's identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the company's headquarters and rocket factory in Los Angeles.
Maezawa, who is most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $US110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, said he would invite six to eight artists to join him on the lunar orbit mission.
Musk, also CEO of electric car maker Tesla, revealed more details of the Big Falcon Rocket, the super heavy-lift launch vehicle that he promises will shuttle passengers to the moon and eventually fly humans and cargo to Mars.
The BFR could be conducting its first orbital flights in about two to three years, he said.
The amount Maezawa is paying for the trip was not disclosed, however, Musk said the businessman outlaid a significant deposit and will have a material impact on the cost of developing the BFR.
The 42-year-old Maezawa is one of Japan's most colourful executives and is a regular fixture in the country's gossipy weeklies with his collection of foreign and Japanese art, fast cars and celebrity girlfriend. He made his fortune by founding the wildly popular shopping site Zozotown.
SpaceX is battling with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to launch private-sector spacecraft.
Maezawa will join a growing list of celebrities and the ultra-rich who have secured seats on flights offered on the under-development vessels.
Those who have signed up to fly on Virgin Galactic sub-orbital missions include actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber. A 90-minute flight costs $US250,000.
SpaceX has already completed more than 50 successful Falcon launches and snagged billions of dollars' worth of contracts, including deals with NASA and the US Department of Defence.
