Japan fashion guru Maezawa lands first SpaceX moon flight
HAWTHORNE, California — 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.
A former drummer in a punk band, Mr. Maezawa’s moon flight is tentatively planned for 2023 aboard SpaceX’s forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, taking the race to commercialize space travel to new heights.
The first person to travel to the moon since the United States’ Apollo missions ended in 1972, Mr. Maezawa’s identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the company’s headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.
“He’s a very brave person to do this,” Mr. Musk said of the Japanese entrepreneur.
Most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, Mr. Maezawa said he would invite six to eight artists to join him on the lunar orbit mission.
The billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla, Inc., Mr. Musk revealed more details of the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, the super heavy-lift launch vehicle that he promises will shuttle passengers to the moon and eventually fly humans and cargo to Mars. The BFR could be conducting its first orbital flights in about two to three years, he said.
Mr. Musk had previously said he wanted the rocket to be ready for an unpiloted trip to Mars in 2022, with a crewed flight in 2024, though his ambitious production targets have been known to slip.
The amount Mr. Maezawa is paying for the trip was not disclosed, however, Mr. Musk said the businessman outlaid a significant deposit and will have a material impact on the cost of developing the BFR.
The 42-year-old Mr. Maezawa is one of Japan’s most colorful executives and is a regular fixture in the country’s gossipy weeklies with his collection of foreign and Japanese art, fast cars and celebrity girlfriend.
Mr. Maezawa made his fortune by founding the wildly popular shopping site Zozotown. His company Zozo, officially called Start Today Co. Ltd, also offers a made-tomeasure service using a polka dot bodysuit, the Zozosuit. —