Space tourism: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa launches to the ISS
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa was setting off to become the first space tourist in more than a decade to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) when he was blown up on Wednesday, a trip he considered to be a short way to his planned trip around the moon. Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2023.
The 46-year-old fashion mogul and art collector successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with his assistant Yozo Hirano, who will document the journey, as well as Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
Maezawa, a space enthusiast who has been training for the journey for months, has become a household name in Japan thanks to his penchant for private jets, celebrity girlfriends and cash gifts for Twitter followers, in a country known for its compliant corporate culture.
Maezawa plans to upload her flight footage YouTube channel has 795,000 followers. He asked supporters to give him 100 ideas of things to do in space and said he plans to play badminton on the ISS.
The cost of Maezawa’s trip was not disclosed but some reports have put the price for flights into the tourist space as high as $50 million (about Rs 380).
Maezawa is also set to become the first individual passenger on the SpaceX trip to the moon and has begun a search for eight people to join him, requiring applicants to pass medical tests and an interview.
© Thomson Reuters 2021