His request: Fly me to the moon
Japanese tycoon signs up for trip by Musk’s Spacex
LOS ANGELES — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Monday that he plans to blast off on the first-ever commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people on the weeklong journey.
The Spacex Big Falcon Rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023, Maezawa and company founder Elon Musk announced at an event Monday at its headquarters near Los Angeles.
Maezawa, 42, said he wants his guests to be inspired to create once they return to Earth “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”
“I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” Maezawa said. “Just thinking about it now gets my heart racing.”
Musk said the billionaire will pay “a lot of money” for the lunar orbit, but he declined to disclose the exact amount. He said Maezawa, founder of Japan’s largest retail website and one of the country’s richest people, came to Spacex with the idea for the flight.
Spacex founder Elon Musk says the BFR is still in development and will make several unmanned test launches before it takes on passengers. The reusable 387-foot rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship.
The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles. No one has been there since an Apollo mission in 1972.
The mission will not involve a lunar landing.