LJapanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced on Saturday that he had canceled his planned trip around the Moon aboard Starship, the mega-rocket built by SpaceX, due to delays in its development. Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, intended for trips to the Moon and Mars, must attempt a fourth test flight next Wednesday, June 5, indicated last May by SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk.
The first three tests resulted in the destruction of the ship, acceptable risks for SpaceX whose development strategy involves speed with successive tests.
Mr. Maezawa announced this “dearMoon” mission aboard Starship in 2018. Originally scheduled for the end of 2023, it had been postponed to an unspecified date due to “ongoing developments” for Starship, he said last November.
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On Saturday, Mr. Maezawa declared on the social network X that this mission was now canceled.
“At this stage, there is no clear outlook for when we will be able to take off,” he explains. “I can’t make plans for my own life and I’m sorry to keep the other crew members I invited waiting, so I’ve decided to cancel after careful consideration. »
“I apologize to those who were waiting” for this project, he adds.
A press release on the “dearMoon” mission website explains that no clear timetable was available after the postponement of the mission planned for 2023. It was therefore “with a heavy heart that Mr. Maezawa made the inevitable decision to ‘cancel the project’.
“To all those who supported this project and expected this undertaking, we sincerely appreciate it and apologize,” the text adds.
Mr. Maezawa had purchased all the seats on board the rocket and organized a selection of artists to accompany him in 2021.
While around a million people had responded to the Japanese’s call to participate in the mission, he announced in December 2022 the identity of the eight people who would accompany him: the American DJ and producer Steve Aoki, the YouTuber Tim Dodd, artist Yemi AD, photographers Rhiannon Adam and Karim Iliya, director Brendan Hall, actor Dev Joshi and K-pop musician TOP.
He also named two replacements: American snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu.
The trip was planned to last about six days, without landing on the moon, according to the “dearMoon” website.
Yusaku Maezawa, extremely wealthy founder of the largest online clothing sales site in Japan, traveled to the International Space Station in 2021 aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, in exchange according to media reports of 10 billion yen ($73 million at current conversion rate).
