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Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, announced on Monday that a Japanese billionaire and a coterie of artists will visit the Moon in 2023 to become the first citizens to fly beyond their low Earth orbit.
Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the Japanese e-commerce giant Zozotown, has committed to a mission around the moon aboard SpaceX's BFR space rocket combo, SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk announced today. A webcast tonight the company's rocket factory in Hawthorne, California.
The mission – which will circle the globe but not land on the moon – may be ready to launch in just five years, said Musk. [The BFR in Images: SpaceX’s Giant Spaceship for Mars & Beyond]
Maezawa will not go alone. He said that he would choose six to eight artists, from painters and sculptors to fashion designers and architects, to share the experience with him and ultimately with all of us. The work that results from this "#dearMoon" mission of a week "will inspire the dreamer inside us all," said Maezawa, an avid collector of art. He launched a website (https://dearmoon.earth/) just for the project.
An illustration of the artist from SpaceX's Big Falcon rocket launched in space. SpaceX will launch Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa on the first private flight around the moon, probably in 2023.
Credit: SpaceX
Maezawa also invited Musk to come and the SpaceX chief did not quite put down the possibility: "Maybe we'll both be on the same track," said Musk.
Neither Musk nor Maezawa would disclose the cost of the flight. But both said that Maezawa had already made a substantial down payment and was buying the entire flight (which means the artists will fly for free).
Musk stressed that the mission would be dangerous and congratulated Maezawa for his courage.
"It's not a walk in the park," Musk said. "When you push the border, it's not a sure thing."
SpaceX will launch Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa on the first private flight around the moon aboard a Big Falcon Rocket for an undisclosed amount. Maezawa will take up to eight artists with him on the flight.
Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is developing the BFR – which means Big Falcon Rocket, or Big F *** ing Rocket – primarily to help humanity move to Mars and other worlds through the solar system. After all, Musk has long argued that helping to make humanity a multi-species is the main reason he created SpaceX in 2002. (The BFR will also do a lot of other work.) SpaceX expects the vehicle to end up launching satellites to clean space debris and carry passengers on ultra-fast "point-to-point" paths on Earth.)
Musk estimated that it would cost about $ 5 billion to get the WCR up and running. And he thanked Maezawa for providing a key funding element for this purpose.
"It has helped a lot to restore my faith in humanity – that someone is ready to do it," Musk said. "In the end, it helps pay the average citizen so that he can travel to other planets – that's a good thing."
The SpaceX CEO also provided an update on the design of BFR at tonight's event. For example, the reusable rocket-spaceship duo will be larger than previously reported – 118 meters (387 feet), compared to 106 meters (348 feet) that Musk cited in September 2017.
And the new BFR spacecraft will feature three "wings" in the rear that will also serve as landing pads, as well as two fins near his nose. The previous space ship iteration consisted of only two rear fins.
This SpaceX graphic illustrates the company's plan for the first private flight around the moon with its Big Falcon rocket. The trip will take up to a week, says SpaceX.
Credit: SpaceX
The BFR spacecraft can hold about 100 people, but the "Dear Moon" trip will only carry one skeleton crew to accommodate extra fuel, food, water and spare parts as a precautionary measure.
The launch date of 2023 is not fixed, he said. SpaceX plans to conduct brief "hopper tests" next year and high-altitude, high-speed flights in 2020. If these tests go well, the first flight into Earth orbit could take place in two or three years, said Musk. And SpaceX will do a number of unmanned test flights before putting Maezawa and the artists on board.
This is not Maezawa's first experience in booking a moonlit flight with SpaceX.
The Japanese entrepreneur was also the one who had booked a circumlunar flight using SpaceX's Dragon capsule and SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, Musk announced tonight. This mission, announced by SpaceX in February 2017, consisted of transporting two people – presumably Maezawa and an artist – and launching them at the end of 2018.
Although humankind has maintained a continuous presence aboard the International Space Station since November 2000, no one has ventured beyond Earth's orbit since the end of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
NASA also aims to launch astronauts around the moon at about the same time as SpaceX. The Space Agency's space exploration mission, the first manned flight of its Orion capsule and the space launch rocket, is expected to take off for a three-week circumlunar mission in September. 2023.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @ michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @ Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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