SpaceX’s space tourism projects are garnering significant global interest. The first passenger to be sent to the Moon by SpaceX was announced about five years ago by Elon Musk. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, expected to be the first lunar passenger to orbit the Moon, has been eagerly awaiting this moment for a long time. He even assembled a famous team of eight people for this. However, exciting projects sometimes face unexpected obstacles. Here are the details…
Japanese billionaire loses hope in SpaceX Moon journey
Many people are now booking private space trips with SpaceX. For details on reservations, click here. However, Yusaku Maezawa, who was selected as the first Moon passenger years ago, announced that he has now given up on his Moon journey with SpaceX.
The Japanese billionaire, who planned to take eight celebrities on a Moon journey with SpaceX’s Starship, announced the reasons for the cancellation on his X account.
Due to the Starship still being in the development phase, the Moon journey planned for 2023 was indefinitely postponed. The official X account for the flight, dearMoon, announced on June 1, “It is unfortunate to announce that dearMoon, the first private flight project around the Moon, will be canceled. We thank everyone who supported us and apologize to those eagerly awaiting this project.”
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Following this news, the Japanese billionaire explained on his X account why he gave up on the Moon journey:
“Regarding the cancellation of the dearMoon project. In 2018, I signed a contract assuming that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023. Since this is a development project, it is still uncertain when Starship can be launched.
In this situation, I cannot plan my future, and I feel bad about keeping the crew members waiting. Therefore, I had to decide to cancel at this point. I apologize to those who were looking forward to this project.”
Among the crew members Maezawa selected for his Moon journey with SpaceX were well-known names such as DJ Steve Aoki, director Brendan Hall, actor Dev Joshi, musician Choi Seung Hyun, and YouTuber Tim Dodd.
Initially, Maezawa had announced that the Moon journey would be indefinitely postponed after the second test flight of the Starship exploded. Now, he has announced that the project is completely canceled. SpaceX will conduct the third test flight of the Starship on June 5.
Some rumors suggest that SpaceX’s contracts with the government and Maezawa’s net worth halving since 2018 are other possible factors in the project’s cancellation. Do you think such private space travels will become more common in the future?
