Jul 17, 2021 (techtimes.com) - SpaceX's Japanese billionaire customer and eight other people will be riding the Starship to go on a mission to the moon.
The mission, called dearMoon, is headed by Yusaku Maezawa.
Maezawa, a billionaire entrepreneur, paid an undisclosed amount to SpaceX in order to achieve his dream of going to the moon. He wants the dearMoon project to be just like a civilian art project. However, people had no idea who he would bring with him until now.
The SpaceX's moon mission had numerous changes since it was first announced in 2018. Maezawa had originally planned to invite artists onboard the Starship to travel with him to the moon, according to CNET.
However, in March, he changed the process and opened up eight spots for the moon mission. He even encouraged the participants to register and send in videos explaining why they should be chosen to go on the moon mission with him.
On July 15, Maezawa gave an update on some of the candidates whose videos he liked. He says that there were over 1 million applicants from almost every single country in the world.
The applicants are a diverse crowd, with professional actors, ballet dancers, photographers, artists, Olympians, and even DJ Steve Aoki. The applicants have not been officially selected yet, and it is not clear when Maezawa will make that decision.
This is the first indication of who might get one of the eight spots on the return trip around the moon.
Before his purchase of SpaceX's spacecraft seat on March, Maezawa produced a TV show in Japan that was focused on finding him a girlfriend that he could take on the moon. However, after significant backlash, Maezawa cancelled the TV show, as per CollectSpace.
