Japanese billionaire chooses 8 crewmembers for his SpaceX moon voyage
Next year's moon trip is booked. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa just announced his crew of eight that will join him on a SpaceX flight around the moon
The Japanese tycoon launched plans for the lunar voyage in 2018, buying all the seats on the spaceship. He began taking applications, 1 million of them, from around the world in March 2021 for what will be his second space journey after his 12-day trip to the International Space Station on the Soyuz Russian spaceship last year.
So who got the moon seats? It's a group of artists including a rapper, DJ, filmmaker, YouTuber, actor and photographers.
Maezawa made the announcement on Twitter and the dearMoon Project website on Friday, after he tweeted last week saying he held an online meeting with Elon Musk and that his "major announcement about space" was underway.
He and the others would be among the first to travel on the SpaceX vehicle, though it still has to clear hurdles, including a liftoff and reaching a low Earth orbit. When achieved, Maezawa's trip is expected to take about a week. The spaceship will not make a lunar landing but is expected to come within 120 miles of the moon's surface while circling it for three days.
Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japan's largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. In 2019, he resigned as CEO of the e-commerce company Zozo Inc. to devote his time to space travel. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $1.9 billion.
Here's the complete list of the moon crew picks:
T.O.P, who debuted as a lead rapper for the K-Pop group Big Bang; American DJ Steve Aoki; filmmaker Brendan Hall and YouTuber Tim Dodd, also of the United States. The other four are British photographer Karim Illiya, Indian actor Dev Joshi, Czech artist Yemi AD and Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam. American Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were chosen as backups.
