Japan Billionaire Picks Crew of Artists, Athletes for SpaceX Moon Trip

• Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has picked his crew for his flight to the moon on SpaceX’s Starship.
• A crew of artists, content creators, and athletes from around the world will fly to the moon as soon as next year.
• More than a million people from 249 countries and regions had applied to fly with Maezawa.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has picked a motley crew for SpaceX’s first private lunar flight planned for next year, including DJ Steve Aoki and K-pop star T.O.P of boy band Big Bang.

Maezawa announced a crew of 10 — which includes two backups — for the mission called “dearMoon” in a YouTube video and a tweet posted on Thursday. Artists, content creators, and athletes from around the world, like American YouTuber Tim Dodd, and Indian television actor Dev Joshi are also part of the crew.

SpaceX said Maezawa and his crew will travel within 200 kilometers of the moon’s surface.

“The dearMoon crew will be the first humans Starship will launch, fly around the Moon, and safely return to Earth,” SpaceX said in its statement on Thursday. More than a million people from 249 countries and regions around the world had applied to fly with Maezawa, the company added.

Maezawa, a Japanese fashion tycoon with a net worth of $1.7 billion, had purchased all the seats on the Starship flight back in 2018. His unconventional choice of travel companions for his moon mission is in line with his eclectic and flamboyant persona. 

Last year, he gave away money as he was returning to earth from the International Space Station after a 12-day trip.

In 2020, a year before he launched an open competition for the moon mission, Maezawa announced he was specifically looking for a romantic “female partner” to accompany him to the moon. He later called off the search.