Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa signed with SpaceX to fly around the moon on the company's next generation rocket, CEO Elon Musk announced on Monday.
Maezawa will attempt to be the first to return to the moon in nearly half a century, launching aboard a Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which SpaceX is developing. BFR is the flagship for Musk's vision of creating a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars, and testing on the behemoth rocket is expected to begin next year.
The trip is expected to launch in 2023.
"Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon. It's always there and continues to inspire humanity," said Maezawa, one of the richest people in Japan, who made his fortune as the founder of online retailers Start Today and Zozotown.
SpaceX announced in February 2017 that two passengers would be flying around the moon in the company's Crew Dragon capsule, launched by its Falcon Heavy rocket. But earlier this year, Musk said SpaceX was considering using BFR instead and on Monday confirmed that Maezawa is "the same person" who was announced before, just with a larger group now onboard.
BFR is a massive, 35-story tall rocket designed to launch and land like SpaceX's Falcon 9, but also carrying dozens of people on board instead of just satellites. Musk confirmed BFR's "design has been changed," after receiving questions about new renders of the rocket posted online.
BlatantConservative on September 18th, 2018 at 03:27 UTC »
Everyone is talking about how cool this is, but isn't this also the most potential old timey murder mystery setting of all time?
A billionaire and eight artists will be locked in a closed room setting for five days.
sunnyjum on September 18th, 2018 at 02:32 UTC »
The URL for the project is: https://dearmoon.earth/
I've not seen the .earth top level domain before, it fits in nicely.
Meanwhile sales of these dresses are going to increase: https://www.promgirl.com/shop/gown-by-manufacturer/dear-moon
tinyboat on September 18th, 2018 at 02:09 UTC »
“MZ” will invite 6-8 artists to join him on his trip to the moon. He hopes the flight will inspire the artists and promote world peace. I just hope it doesn’t blow up.