INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Japanese billionaire and entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa will be the first private citizen to take a flight around the moon in SpaceX Big Falcon
Rocket, a 240,000-mile journey slated for as early as 2023.
In an emotional and jubilant speech during a SpaceX event Monday at the company
headquarters in near Los Angeles, Maezawa exclaimed &I choose to go to the moon!
Hanging out with @yousuck2020 before the @SpaceX moon
mission announcement pic.twitter.com/RTOwutzMtG
mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2018
If SpaceX is successful in its testing and
development of the BFR — which has a long road ahead — Maezawa will be the first passenger to travel to the moon since the 1972 Apollo
mission conducted by the United States
Only 24 people have been to the moon
The journey will last about a week and come as close as 125 miles to the moon surface before completing lunar transit and returning back to
Earth, according to SpaceX.
He is the best adventurer, I think,& Musk said of Maezawa during a QA with reporters after the
announcement.
Maezawa has ticked just about every box on the list of possible careers in life
He an entrepreneur and musician, designer, artist, art collector andthe founder and CEO of online fashion retailer Zozotown.
This is my life
&Ever since I was a kid I loved the moon, just staring at the moon it filled my imagination
It always there and continues to inspire.
Maezawa said he wants to bring six to eight artists with him on flight so they&re inspired to
create space and moon-inspired works that reflect their experience
He calling the project #dearMoon
&Their masterpieces will inspire the dreamer in all of us,& he said, adding he has not decided who should join him on the journey
He would like artists to be mix of musicians, photographers, painters and architects.
SpaceX has a lot to accomplish and considerable
capital to raise before BFR sends Maezawa into space
Just 5% of SpaceX resources are currently dedicated to the BFR
It estimated to cost $5 billion to develop the BFR.
Neither Maezawa or Musk would disclose how much he is paying
Although Musk called him the real deal and noted he was paying &a lot of money.
The BFR has not yet been built
Musk said the success of the project will depend on sources of revenue, including paying customers
The BFR could fit 100 people, but Musk said it makes sense to have about a dozen people on the first manned flight along with extra
supplies.
Musk teased the announcement — and a new-looking BFR design —in a tweet Thursday evening, that it SpaceX had &signed the world
first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle.&This is the third design that SpaceX has floated for BFR.This
is ''the final iteration in terms of broad architectural designs for BFR,& Musk said Monday night.
Musk revealed a few more details about
the BFR during the Monday night event
The BFR design shown Monday is 118 meter long two-stage reusable spaceship that will be capable of taking a 100-metric ton payload to
Mars.
SpaceX still plans to have &hopper& test flights of the BFR spaceship next year, followed by high-altitude, high-velocity flights in
2020.
The BFR, meant to stand for Big Falcon Rocket or anything else that might spring to mind, is designed to be sustainable interplanetary
It will eventually replace SpaceX other rockets such as Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
