SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space transportation company, on Monday named its first private passenger on a voyage around the moon as Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo.
Maezawa, 42, said he plans to invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people to join him on board the SpaceX rocket “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”
The Big Falcon Rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023, Musk said on Monday at the company’s headquarters near Los Angeles.
Photo: AFP
Maezawa said he wants his guests for the lunar orbit “to see the moon up close, and the Earth in full view, and create work to reflect their experience.”
Musk said the Japanese entrepreneur would pay “a lot of money” for the trip, but declined to disclose the exact amount.
He said that Maezawa came to SpaceX with the idea for the group flight.
“I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself,” Maezawa said, wearing a blue sports jacket over a white T-shirt printed with a work by the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.
He said he often mused about what artists like Basquiat or Andy Warhol might have come up with if they had traveled into space.
“I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” he said.
Maezawa did not immediately say who would be on his guest list for the spaceflight, but in response to a question from a reporter he said he would consider inviting Musk.
“Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Musk said with a smile.
Musk said the BFR is still in development and would make several unmanned test launches before it takes on passengers.
The reusable 118m rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship and its development is expected to cost about US$5 billion, Musk said.
The mission will not involve a lunar landing.
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