Japanese Billionaire Selecting 8 Civilians to Fly Around the Moon with SpaceX [VIDEO]

Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa.

On Tuesday, Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa announced plans to select eight members of the public to fly on a SpaceX Starship in 2023, with the expenses fully paid for by Maezawa and his company dearMoon, according to CNBC.

The mission was initially announced in 2018 alongside SpaceX founder Elon Musk as a trip for artists, but has since evolved to include eight members of the public, chosen by Maesawa, and two to four other crew members.

In a video inviting the public to join, Maezawa said, “I’m inviting you to join me on this mission.”

Maezawa went onto explain that, the longer he thought about the idea of inviting “artists,” the more he began to wonder how broad that word could actually be, and if it included writers, dancers, or other forms of artists – ultimately spurring him on to simply include those of any profession.

In the video, Elon Musk explains that the dearMoon mission will be the first commercial spaceflight to take humans beyond Earth’s orbit, actually taking them past the moon to go further from Earth than any human has gone before.

On the dearMoon website, the company says those interested in joining the crew should pre-register by March 14, with an initial screening occurring as soon as March 21. After the screening, dearMoon will provide candidates with a subsequent assignment, online interview, and finally a last interview and medical checkup – with the whole process expected to wrap up by late May 2021.

You can watch dearMoon’s full video about the SpaceX mission below.

YouTube video