Japanese SpaceX’s first Moon traveller

Hawthorne, September 18

A Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon 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.

Yusaku Maezawa, 42, will be the first lunar traveller 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, late on 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.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described Maezawa as the “bravest” and “best adventurer”. — AFP