Steven Millward · · 1 min readIn brief: Japanese tech billionaire to be SpaceX’s first space tourist
Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has unveiled the first private passenger it plans to fly around the Moon.
Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 42, announced: “I choose to go to the Moon.”
Source: BBC
Scheduled for 2023, the mission will use SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket, a launch system that was introduced in 2016 but has yet to be tested.
“It’s not 100 percent certain we can bring this to flight,” cautioned the Tesla boss when the announcement was made in California.
While the rocket trip is some way off, Maezawa got to ride Musk at the SpaceX event:
Maezawa, worth US$2.7 billion, is the creator and boss of online store Zozotown.
More from Japan:
Editing by Eileen C. Ang
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