Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has announced the eight crew members who will join him on a trip around the moon scheduled for 2023 aboard a still-in-development SpaceX rocket, Starship.
We finally know who will fly to the moon as part of the DearMoon mission of Elon Musk’s company. As a reminder, DearMoon was announced in 2018 as SpaceX’s first private lunar mission. The vision at the time was tosend a group of artists into space so that they can create works based on their experience.
The idea was tocomplete a lap around the Moon before returning to Earth. This trip would include 10 to 12 people, including six to eight handpicked artists. This project was worn by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawaand the latter has finally revealed the crew.
Who will be the first civilians to travel around the moon?
Maezawa announced a crew of 10, which includes two backups, for the DearMoon mission in a YouTube video and tweet posted Thursday. Artists, content creators and athletes from around the world are part of the crew.
The unconventional team will consist of DJ and producer Steve Aoki (USA), American YouTuber Tim Dodd, Czech artist Yemi AD, Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam, British photographer Karim Iliya, American filmmaker Brendan Hall, Bollywood star Dev Joshi and K-pop star TOP, or real name Choi Seung-hyun (South Korea).
American snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu have agreed to be members of the rescue team, in case one of the other members withdraws before the trip. SpaceX’s mission will last about six days and circle the moon without landing.
To take them there, the stars obviously intend to use Elon Musk’s brand new giant Starship rocket, which should make its first orbital flight by the end of the year. It is also this spacecraft that should help humanity’s efforts to return to the moon to establish a base there, and which will take the first astronauts to Mars by the end of the decade.
