Billionaire who booked a SpaceX flight around the Moon cancels after delays
Maezawa in 2022. | Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa had once planned to take eight artists on a flight around the Moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship. But now, with Starship still in development the flight already indefinitely delayed, Maezawa says he has canceled the trip.
The X account for the flight, called dearMoon, announced the news on Friday, followed by posts from the billionaire himself. In those, he said he had signed on in 2018 expecting to fly in 2023, but that it’s “still uncertain when Starship can launch.”
“I can’t plan my future in this situation,” Maezawa added.
Regarding the dearMoon project cancellation.I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023.It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch.— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) (@yousuckMZ) June 1, 2024
He also said he feels “terrible making the crew members wait longer.” Others he’d picked for the flight included DJ Steve Aoki, filmmaker Brendan Hall, musician Choi Seung Hyunm, and YouTuber Tim Dodd.
Maezawa posted in November that the flight had been delayed indefinitely, days before Starship’s second flight test that exploded shortly after launch. SpaceX is currently planning its fourth such test for June 5th, but as Ars Technica notes, the ship is still “at the beginning of a challenging technical journey.”
Other possibilities that Ars notes for the project’s cancellation include SpaceX’s focus on its government contracts, as well as Maezawa’s net worth, which is half what it was in 2018 (though it’s still pegged at over $1 billion). The billionaire has also already been to space once, when he rode a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, where he stayed for 12 days in 2021.
Maezawa in 2022. | Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa had once planned to take eight artists on a flight around the Moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship. But now, with Starship still in development the flight already indefinitely delayed, Maezawa says he has canceled the trip.
The X account for the flight, called dearMoon, announced the news on Friday, followed by posts from the billionaire himself. In those, he said he had signed on in 2018 expecting to fly in 2023, but that it’s “still uncertain when Starship can launch.”
“I can’t plan my future in this situation,” Maezawa added.
Regarding the dearMoon project cancellation.
I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023.
It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch.
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) (@yousuckMZ) June 1, 2024
He also said he feels “terrible making the crew members wait longer.” Others he’d picked for the flight included DJ Steve Aoki, filmmaker Brendan Hall, musician Choi Seung Hyunm, and YouTuber Tim Dodd.
Maezawa posted in November that the flight had been delayed indefinitely, days before Starship’s second flight test that exploded shortly after launch. SpaceX is currently planning its fourth such test for June 5th, but as Ars Technica notes, the ship is still “at the beginning of a challenging technical journey.”
Other possibilities that Ars notes for the project’s cancellation include SpaceX’s focus on its government contracts, as well as Maezawa’s net worth, which is half what it was in 2018 (though it’s still pegged at over $1 billion). The billionaire has also already been to space once, when he rode a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, where he stayed for 12 days in 2021.