SpaceX gets first private passenger for moon trip

Washington, Sep 16: SpaceX is set to send a private passenger on a spaceflight around the moon soon, as it's now signed up its first customer for the trip.

SpaceX booked 'world's first' private passenger

On Thursday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced via a tweet that the company has signed the world's first private passenger for a trip around the moon. However, he didn't reveal the identity of the mystery passenger but has promised to provide details via a press conference scheduled for Monday, September 17, at the company's Hawthorne headquarters.

Who Is SpaceX's Mystery Moon Passenger?

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed that Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire and founder of Zozotown, Japan's largest online clothing retailer, will be the first private customer to ride around the Moon on the company's future massive rocket, the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).

Cost of the trip?

The high cost of the trip - estimated at around $150m (£120m) - means the person is also presumably a billionaire. According to Forbes magazine's rich list, there are 34 Japanese-born billionaires in the world, though many of them may be too old to take the trip.

Elon Musk had said two humans take that trip at some point in 2018

SpaceX announced in February 2017 that two people had signed up for a weeklong trek around the moon, which the company aimed to launch before the end of 2018. That mission was to use SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule and Falcon Heavy rocket. Had SpaceX followed through with that plan, it could have returned humans to the moon near the 50th anniversary of NASA's historic Apollo 8 mission around the moon in December 1968.