Elon Musk's SpaceX revealed the name of the person who is set to become the first private space tourist to travel to the moon: Yusaku Maezawa.
The Japanese businessman is the billionaire founder and CEO of online fashion retailer Zozo.
From the company:
SpaceX has signed the world's first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle – an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Only 24 humans have been to the Moon in history. No one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Yusaku Maezawa sounds like an interesting person. He says he plans to head to the moon "with Earth's top artists."
He said during the webcast announcement tonight, "If Pablo Picasso had been able to see the moon up-close, what kind of paintings would he have drawn?"
Video below, Livestream of the announcement event.
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— tc (@chillmage) September 18, 2018
SpaceX's first private passenger is Japanese fashion entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, the creator of Zozotown.
Story to follow soon on: https://t.co/210HSxsX9Khttps://t.co/ZN1iEkN9Xg— Nikkei Asian Review (@NAR) September 18, 2018
The first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard BFR is fashion innovator and globally recognized art curator Yusaku Maezawa.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 18, 2018
SpaceX has completed over 60 launches to-date and has the world's only reusable orbital class rockets and spacecraft—capable of launching to space, returning to Earth, and flying again. pic.twitter.com/0rjinzNHyb
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 18, 2018
Short hops of BFR will happen at SpaceX's Texas site. For first orbital flights, no clear decision on that yet; might happen from an **orbital platform** (whoa).
— Emre Kelly (@EmreKelly) September 18, 2018
Elon Musk's SpaceX named its first private passenger as Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa, founder and CEO of online fashion retailer Zozo. https://t.co/NZ2KzkFP2j pic.twitter.com/j8rXYWOM8B
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) September 18, 2018
The #dearmoon mission will use @SpaceX's BFR – Big F. Rocket (let's assume the F is for Falcon) – which has yet to be built/tested so a 2023 launch is ambitious to say the least!
— Alan Duffy (@astroduff) September 18, 2018
Less than 5% of #SpaceX resources are currently spent on BFR. "That will change in years to come," @ElonMusk says. Top priority right now is commercial crew. pic.twitter.com/G5aIpsCTXc
— Emre Kelly (@EmreKelly) September 18, 2018