Japanese billionaire seeks volunteers for SpaceX moon flight



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Eccentric Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is looking for eight civilian volunteers to fly to the moon with him on the first-ever private commercial space trip.

The weeklong trip, originally announced in 2018 and named “dearMoon” is scheduled for 2023 aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Rocket, formerly known as SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket.

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Although the next-gen Starship is still in testing, with some races ending in severe crashes, Musk assured him he would be ready to sail for two years and said he believed the mission “would make a real difference.”

It will take three days to arrive on the lunar planet. The Starship will loop behind it, then begin its three-day journey home, making it the farthest distance a human has ever traveled from Earth.

In a video released on Tuesday, the Zozo founder explained that the full passenger list will include 10 to 12 crew members. The 45-year-old will fund the expedition, but how that remains unclear.

Although Maezawa initially specified that the candidates were artists, this plan has since “evolved.”

“Anyone who does something creative could be called an artist… and that’s why I wanted to reach a larger and more diverse audience,” he said.

Now, the CEO of Start Today Co. has only two requirements: to be able to push the boundaries to help “big company” in one way or another, and to be willing to support other members of the company. crew who “share similar aspirations”.

Each selected participant will wear a bespoke SpaceX suit designed to provide a pressurized environment for all members and to carry communication and cooling systems to astronauts during scheduled flight.

Notably, in January of last year, Maezawa also launched a strange campaign to find a “female partner” to accompany him, receiving 27,722 applications from single women over 20 years of age.

The selected person co-starred in a reality show about the process on the Japanese streaming service AbemaTV.

However, following criticism, he quickly canceled the search and apologized.

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Currently, pre-applications for the selection process must be submitted by March 14 at 6:59 p.m. PT, and initial screening will begin one week later. Final interviews and medical checks are scheduled for the end of May.

Inspiration4, another civilian mission in support of the Saint-Jude Children’s Research Hospital, aims to take off in SpaceX’s Dragon – already certified for human flight – by the end of the year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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