Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese businessman who was leading what was going to be the first tourist trip to the Moon, has canceled the mission, ‘dearMoon’, which DJ Steve Aoki, among other artists, was going to join, after it became “unviable” and “uncertain in the short term,” members of the project confirmed to EFE this Monday.
The trip, which was going to be aboard a space vehicle from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, was to have taken place in 2023, but last November it was postponed and, finally, Maezawa, founder of the largest online fashion retail business, Japan’s largest, Zozo (ZozoTown), made the decision to cancel it.
The ‘dearMoon’ mission, aboard Musk’s SpaceX, should have taken place last year
“The launch in 2023 became unfeasible and, without clear certainty of a short-term schedule, Maezawa made with great regret the inevitable decision to cancel the project,” argues a statement published on the ‘dearMoon’ website, which He does not plan to offer more details about the trip cancellation. Maezawa posted on his personal X social media account: “I can’t plan my future in this situation and I feel terrible making team members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this time.”
The plan included artists from different countries around the world with the aim of enhancing creativity and for new “inspiring” projects to emerge during the trip to space, which was going to last a week. Maezawa chose in a public call and from more than a million volunteers the eight people who would become his companions, of American, Czech, Korean, Indian, Irish, Japanese and British nationalities.
Millionaire Yusaku Maezawa spent 12 days in space in January 2022
Issei Kato/Reuters
Those selected were the aforementioned American DJ and South Korean musician, the youtuber American Tim Dodd, American filmmaker Brendan Hall, Czech multidisciplinary artist Yemi AD, Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam and British Karim Ilia and Indian actor Dev D. Joshi.
Joseph Corbella
“To everyone who has supported this project and looked forward to this effort, we sincerely appreciate it and apologize for this outcome. Although ‘dearMoon’ is cancelled, Maezawa and the crew members will continue to challenge themselves in their respective fields,” the project said. “We will maintain a deep respect for SpaceX as they continue to venture into uncharted territories and we move on to the next challenge,” the announcement concludes.
The ‘dearMoon’ mission was announced in 2018 and with it Maezawa aspired to become the first private passenger on a lunar journey.
