A Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon, Yusaku Maezawa, will be the first man to fly on a monster SpaceX rocket around the Moon as early as 2023, and he plans to bring six to eight artists along.
Maezawa, 42, will be the first lunar traveler since the last US Apollo mission in 1972. He paid an unspecified amount of money for the privilege.
"Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the Moon," Maezawa said at SpaceX headquarters and rocket factory in Hawthorne, California, in the middle of metropolitan Los Angeles, late Monday.
"This is my lifelong dream."
Maezawa is chief executive of Japan's largest online fashion mall, and is the 18th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3 billion, according to the business magazine Forbes.
Maezawa's other hobby is amassing valuable works of modern art and last year, he announced the acquisition of a Jean-Michel Basquiat masterpiece worth $110.5 million.
His love of art led him to decide to invite artists to come along, he said.
"I would like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the Moon," Maezawa said.
"They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us."
Maezawa said he planned to pick "artists I love" to go along, but gave no further specifics.
Until now, Americans are the only ones who have left Earth's orbit. A total of 24 NASA astronauts—all white men—voyaged to the Moon during the Apollo era of the 1960s and '70s. Twelve walked on the lunar surface.
The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American businessman who in 2001 paid some $20 million to fly on a Russian spaceship to the International Space Station.
Free for artists
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described Maezawa as the "bravest" and "best adventurer."
"He stepped forward," Musk added. "We are honored that he chose us."
Musk said he would not reveal the price Maezawa paid for the Moon trip, but said it would be "free for the artists."
"This is dangerous, to be clear. This is no walk in the park," Musk cautioned.
"When you are pushing the frontier, it is not a sure thing. There is a chance something could go wrong."
Still, when asked by reporters if Musk would be a passenger, he left the door open to the possibility.
"As far as me going, I'm not sure. He did suggest like maybe that I would join on this trip. I don't know," Musk said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Maezawa.
"All right. Maybe we will both be on it," Musk said to cheers and applause.
The ride will take place aboard a Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which may not be ready for human flight for five years at least, Musk said.
The BFR was first announced in 2016, and was touted as the most powerful rocket in history, even more potent than the Saturn V Moon rocket that launched the Apollo missions five decades ago.
Last year, Musk said the BFR's admittedly "ambitious" goal was to make a test flight to Mars in 2022, followed by a crewed flight to the Red Planet in 2024.
'Multi-planetary species'
This isn't the first time Musk has vowed to send tourists around the Moon. Last year, he said two paying tourists would circle the Moon in 2018, but those plans that did not materialize.
Musk showed off designs for the 118-meter (129 yards) long BFR, which will consist of a first stage with engines and fuel systems, and a second stage with the spacecraft where the passengers will ride.
Musk estimated it would cost $5 billion to build.
The BFR spacecraft's shape is reminiscent of the space shuttle, the bus-like US spaceships that carried astronauts to space 135 times from 1981 to 2011.
Musk has said he wants the BFR's vessel to be able to hold around 100 people, and that the launch system could one day be used to colonize the Moon and Mars in order to make humans a "multi-planetary" species.
Other space companies, like Virgin Galactic, founded by British tycoon Richard Branson, and billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's rocket company Blue Origin, are working on trips to the edge of space that could offer tourists a chance at weightlessness for 10 minutes or so.
Virgin's trip will cost about $250,000. Blue Origin's price has not been revealed.
Russian and Chinese companies are also working on space tourism plans.
Human flights to space
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla Motors, has drawn attention in recent months over his erratic behavior.
He has alleged that a cave diver in Thailand who helped rescue stranded boys was a "pedo," smoked what appeared to be marijuana on a comedian's podcast, spooked Tesla investors with comments about the future of the electric car maker, and admitted to exhaustion and use of the sleeping pill Ambien.
But so far this year, his space firm has also kept up a schedule outpaced only by the Chinese government, making 15 launches with its Falcon 9 rocket.
Next year, SpaceX—which has received billions in NASA funding to ferry supplies to the ISS and build a crew vehicle—hopes to become the first private company to send astronauts to the space station.
Yusaku Maezawa: Japanese spaceman with a taste for art
Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, confirmed as SpaceX's first Moon tourist, is a former wannabe rock star now worth $3 billion with a penchant for pricey modern art as well as space travel.
The 42-year-old tycoon, chief executive of Japan's largest online fashion mall, is the country's 18th richest person, according to business magazine Forbes.
His Instagram feed is peppered with shots of his luxury living—including private jets, yachts and designer watches, but also his beloved art.
Maezawa hit the headlines last year when he bought a Jean-Michel Basquiat masterpiece worth $110.5 million.
But he also often features in the tabloid glossies for his celebrity love life.
He used to date the ex-wife of professional baseball player Yu Darvish, pitcher at US major league team Chicago Cubs and is now reportedly with Japanese actress Ayame Goriki.
The entrepreneur has a passion for modern art and splashed a record sum for Basquiat's 1982 "Untitled", a skull-like head in oil-stick, acrylic and spray paint on a giant canvas.
Maezawa founded the Contemporary Art Foundation in Tokyo and was on the 2017 list of "Top 200 Collectors" of the ARTnews magazine based in New York.
He insists he is just an "ordinary collector"—despite his extraordinary bank balance. His purchases are born out of love and driven by gut instinct, rather than the instructions of any art advisor.
"I buy simply because they are beautiful. That's all. I enjoy classics together with the history and stories behind them, but possessing classics is not the purpose of my purchase," he told AFP in an interview last year.
And rather than squirrel the work away, he loaned it out to museums including the Brooklyn Museum, in the artist's hometown.
"I hope it brings as much joy to others as it does to me, and that this masterpiece by the 21-year-old Basquiat inspires our future generations," he said.
Art was high on his mind when he announced he would blast into space on a SpaceX rocket in 2023, saying he would invite six to eight artists from around the world with him.
"They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us," he told reporters.
He has already shown his appreciation for Musk's space programme, tweeting his congratulations for the successful launch of Falcon Heavy in February.
"I am moved that I shared the historic moment on the scene. I am so thrilled and encouraged I can't put it into words," his tweet said.
'Routine work'
As a young man, Maezawa had aspirations in the music world and was a drummer with a band named Switch Style, which made its debut in 2000.
In an interview with corporate affairs website Nippon Shacho, he said he eventually discovered that the business world was more creative than music.
Writing songs, releasing albums and touring the country performing was "gradually becoming routine work," he told the website.
"We were about to become salary worker-like musicians," he said, referring to the famous Japanese "salaryman" businessman.
Even before the band's debut, he was dabbling in business, founding Start Today, which operates online fashion shopping site ZOZOTOWN.
Start Today is now a publicly listed company with 900 employees according to its website.
He said his company has grown because he and his staff "are doing what we enjoy."
"We love clothes, and we love our colleagues who love clothes. We are doing business as an extension of our hobby," he said.
Explore further:
3,2,1: SpaceX counts down to reveal mystery Moon traveller
granville583762
Next year, SpaceX—which has received billions$$$$$ in NASA funding to ferry supplies to the ISS and build a crew vehicle
WHY is NASA wasting Billions$$$$ of our money on Elon Musk on a commercially available product that has been sending people to the moon for over 50years before Elon Musk was born?
What is NASA doing with these billions$$$$ of taxpayers money in first, place as it is frittering it away on Elon Musk, a philanderer?
NASA was given taxpayers money to build rockets
Elon Musk knows absolutely nothing about ROCKETRY and SPACEFLIGHT and now Elon Musk is strutting round as a MULTIBILLIARE Courtesy of the Downtrodden TAXPAPER
poksnee
You are exactly right. Musk is a huckster and liar. The amazing thing is how many idiots believe in him.
ShotmanMaslo
granville583762
And Elon Musk has spent that mere fraction of money NASA receives, put those mere BILLIONS$$$$$ in his bank, and Spent it on Wine, Women and Song and at the gambling dens of LAS VEGAS, nice to know LAS VEGAS gambling dens are going sky high with NASA's mere Billion$$$$$s courteous of the Down Trodden Tax Payer!
antialias_physorg
While he may not deliver on time he always delivers (and then some. His companies are the only ones I know who actively *undersell* the capabilities of their products)
So where exactly is he - in your opinion - "a huckster and a liar" ?
granville583762
It must be how you tell them ShotmanMaslo, a classic music hall comicidianic spectatacularic superluminfaricary jocus, all be it at the down trodden tax payers expense, but were not complaining when have your superluminfaricary humour ShotmanMaslo, it takes the sting out our pockets being emptied!
Spacebaby2001
Go watch a launch if you need, and reflect on what you've done with your life in the past 10 years, or have you and that is why you are so angry?
As an active tax payer I'm elated at what SpaceX has done these past 10 years.
ShotmanMaslo
MrBojangles
rrwillsj
To discover that those skiploads of bucks are carefully spread around to as many American corporations and academic institutions as possible. In as many congressional districts as possible since the 1950's.
Cause it is the US Congress who distributes the largesse. Or, didn't you know?
Doesn't it make your heart glow with patriotic fervor to learn that under the table payments from the aero-space conglomerates is financially supporting your congresscritter's re-election campaign?
Yes! Yes! That peculiarly American version of institutionalized corruption, must make you want to stand-up and bellow forth the Star Spangled Banner!
434a
But surely, as you've said many times before, you live in Yorkshire, which I believe is in the United Kingdom....how exactly has NASA spent your tax dollars on Musk?
It's a bit contradictory don't you think?
Could it be you're not from Yorkshire?
Or is it that NASA has never spent a penny of your tax pounds, sorry dollars?
Hmmmm....I hope you've not been lying, you've been very forthright about lying lately, I'd hate to think you're a hypocrite.
granville583762
Tis the web of the internet, we can live both sides of the pond, but as long as those $$$$$$$ don't translate into ££££££££ we will all sleep peacefully in those Yorkshire moors, fortunately we're to poor to afford Elon Musk philandering life style… parliaments taxed us to the hilt, but thanks all the same 434a
TheGhostofOtto1923
-Those BASTARDS. This makes me so mad. Obviously we need more laws to prevent karmic imbalances like this. I think he means he likes small dogs
Mark Thomas
granville583762, don't look now, but your extreme ignorance is showing. Not only does Musk know more about rocketry than you know, he knows more than you are apparently capable of knowing. His reusable first stage rockets are a revelation. Even better, every one who uses SpaceX has saved millions of dollars, including NASA. Don't fall for right-wing lies and propaganda. If SpaceX is able to reach Mars, Elon Musk will probably be acknowledged by history as the greatest innovator of our time.
BTW, Star Trek ranked Elon Musk's contributions right up there with the Wright Brothers and Zefram Cochrane, and I for one do not have a problem with that.
Mark Thomas
Spacebaby2001, I cannot tell you how much I wish it were as simple as that. One of the bedrock foundations of the U.S. Republican Party is the more you repeat your lies, the more true they become for their dimwitted supporters. The idea that repeated lies become more accepted with time is attributed to one of the intellectual fathers of the modern U.S. Republican Party, i.e., Joseph Goebbels, who was also Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany.
granville583762
NASA is a government agency wasting money on 1000$$$$$$ spanners you can get in Sears for a dollar, any private company can waste less money than NASA, Elon Musk is celebrity status to bring in the billion$$$$$$$$
HannaB
The reusable booster is a parlor trick that gets people to cheer. It makes SpaceX look like it is making progress, but we had reusable boosters with the Space Shuttle program and the only difference is that SpaceX is wasting valuable fuel to re-land the booster.
Mark Thomas
You are obviously not a U.S. taxpayer, so what do you care? I have been paying taxes to the U.S. govt all my adult life, and I do not regret any amount spent on NASA, not one cent! NASA's budget is about half of one percent of the entire budget and is by far one of the best bargains the human race ever made.
granville583762
torbjorn_b_g_larsson
But the revenue streams has gone up too, it is an excellent idea to use artists to (mass)produce initial products. The technical and economical progress would make Heinlein/Bonestell ("The Man Who Sold The Moon") and Hergé ("Explorers on the Moon") proud.
Mark Thomas
LIke I wrote, I think Star Trek got it right, again. Elon Musk will probably be acknowledged by history as the greatest innovator of our time.
granville583762
We also have to get these billions$$$$$$$$$$$$$ under control, we cannot be spending this much on rockets that can only travel 170miles
granville583762
Mark Thomas
Dude, the Falcon Heavy rocket is currently the MOST POWERFUL ROCKET IN EXISTENCE TODAY. Musk used the first one to send his freakin car on an orbit past Mars! You need to keep up on your reading.
torbjorn_b_g_larsson
The cost is irrelevant, the income is - even the LEO 1st stage reusable Falcon 9 can launch satellitesthat push themselves to GEO,or Moon,or Mars.Falcon Heavy even more so.
But the point of the article is the BFS that goes to the Moon, or Mars, or all over the solar system, which is at best 10 million times your stated estimate, Also, 5 billion $ @ 5 years is very efficient compared to NASA, so your estimates fail there too even if not so absurdly as when you state LEO for an interplanetary system; you failed everyone 10 million times.
TheGhostofOtto1923
Is Gitmo as bad as they say?
TheGhostofOtto1923
"a Falcon 9 launch costs an average of $57 million, which works out to less than $2,500 per pound to orbit."
"Propellant only cost between $300,000 and $400,000 per launch"
I know. You're a troll and you got the adult to do a trick for you. You're so clever! Now go do your homework.
TheGhostofOtto1923
Mark Thomas
big_hairy_jimbo
Solon
"Until now, Americans are the only ones who have left Earth's orbit. A total of 24 NASA astronauts—all white men—"
And all Military. Does anyone really believe that civilians will be allowed outside of low Earth orbit?? National Security will be invoked, if the mission gets anywhere near fruition.
Mimath224
ShotmanMaslo
Fuel is very cheap and not the reason for high launch costs at all. Again, you know nothing about spaceflight or rocketry, so why are you even commenting? Labor costs are the reason. "Wasting" fuel to get the rocket back is a very good trade-off.
HannaB
In either situation the payloads to supply a trip to Mars will need every gram (or ounce) of fuel for one purpose, to move stuff into orbit. Re-landing the booster so it can be reused is wasting payload fuel and that increases the cost, not decreases it.
Neither NASA, nor SpaceX is working towards a legitimate space program, and the door is open for China.
ShotmanMaslo
The only way to achieve these hard missions is through decreasing launch costs, not through counting every gram on the rocket.
Anonym334113
antialias_physorg
How exactly will a trip around the Moon impinge on national security (and of which nation)?
Mark Thomas
They were not all military either. Harrison Schmitt was a Ph.D. geologist and never served in the military. It is believed he is the one who took the famous "Blue Marble" picture of Earth.
TheGhostofOtto1923
NASA is a military agency. The shuttle was a military vehicle designed to hoist spysats and to build an outpost. Orion is a military system, designed and built to milspec, which explains the time, cost, and delays.
And once the target areas are secured and bridgeheads established, colonies will be built by civilians and occupied by civilians.
Independent colonies are the REASON for all of this. And colonies along with their supply and trade routes need to be defended, by the military.
Which necessarily requires a Space Force.
TheGhostofOtto1923
https://arstechni...-course/
TheGhostofOtto1923
Old_C_Code
rrwillsj