SpaceX announced Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first private passenger on a solo rocket trip around the moon. But the scheduled space flight won't be until 2023, as announced at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, during an event Monday evening.

The 42-year-old entrepreneur said at the event that it's been his lifelong dream to go into space. He added just thinking about the journey gets his heart racing.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says Maezawa will fly to the moon aboard a new rocket called the BFR, which is still in development. The reusable 118-meter (387-foot) rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship.

The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles (382,500 kilometers). No one has been there since the US Apollo mission in 1972.