A Japanese billionaire is set to become the first space tourist to fly around the moon.
SpaceX announced plans for 42-year-old Yusaku Maezawa - who made his €2.5 billion fortune through online fashion website Zozo - to make the voyage in 2023.
He's also set to bring eight 'artists representing the Earth' on the 384,400 kilometre trip.
The crew will spend a week in space.
I choose to go to the moon, with Artists. #dearMoon https://t.co/ivMypEcWBZ
— Yusaku Maezawa å‰æ¾¤å‹ä½œ (@yousuck2020) September 18, 2018
Mr Maezawa said: "I hope that this project will inspire the dreamer within each of us.
"Together with Earth's top artists, I will be heading to the moon... just a little earlier than everyone else."
He's set to travel on the Big Falcon Rocket - described as SpaceX's "next-generation reusable launch vehicle [...] a supersized rocket and spacecraft designed for transportation of people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond".
However, the rocket design is not yet complete - with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk warning it's not yet certain it will be completed in time for the planned flight.
Hanging out with @yousuck2020 before the @SpaceX moon mission announcement pic.twitter.com/RTOwutzMtG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2018
If it goes ahead, the trip would be the first manned flight to the moon since 1972.
Speaking at the announcement of the mission yesterday, Mr Musk explained: "We need to seek every possible means of funding.
"We've been transporting cargo to and from the space station for several years now... next year we'll start transporting astronauts to and from the space station.
"Private customers - or any customers for BFR - are incredibly helpful in developing funding of the rocket."
Mr Musk's company is hoping to send an unpiloted craft to Mars in 2022, before a crewed flight two years later.
SpaceX is not the only space company working on space tourism - with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic also working to offer trips to those able to pay the high costs associated.
The first space tourist was American billionaire Dennis Tito.
In 2001, he paid to spend eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1 - a visiting mission to the International Space Station.
Additional reporting by IRN
