“Together with Earth's top artists, I will be heading to the moon... just a little earlier than everyone else.”

He did not reveal exactly who will join him on the spaceflight, but he did tell a reporter he'd consider inviting Elon Musk.

"Maybe we'll both be on it," Musk added with a smile.

Mr Maeszawa did not say how much he paid for the tickets but Musk said that the development of the BFR would cost an estimated $5 billion (£3.8bn) for the project.

Musk said that it was crucial that SpaceX got the maiden commercial flight right, telling the audience "this is a dangerous mission" joking that SpaceX would "have enough water if things went wrong".

He shelved a similar project to send two customers into space in 2017, without revealing who the first people to pay for seats were at the time. Both had reportedly paid a "significant deposit" but the project was abandoned amid what Mr Musk described as "so many uncertainties".