Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, a tycoon in the world of online fashion, will be the first SpaceX customer to travel around the Moon. The journey can take place as early as 2023. Maezawa is going to take 6-8 artists with him. He will be the first man since 1972, the time of Apollo's last mission, which will go near the Silver Globe.
Since I was a child, I have loved the Moon. It's a dream of my life, said Maezawa during a visit to the headquarters of Space X.
He is the executive director of Japan's largest online clothing store. His fortune is valued at $3 billion. He is also a lover of contemporary art. Last year he bought a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for over $110 million, setting a price record for an American artist.
I would like to invite 6-8 artists to join me on a mission to the Moon. I will ask them to create something after the journey. Their works will awaken the dreamer who is in each of us, added the billionaire.
So far, Americans are the only people who have left the Earth's orbit. In the 1960s and 1970s, this was done by 24 NASA astronauts, 12 of them walking on the Moon.
The first space tourist was the American billionaire Dennis Tito, who in 2001 paid 20 million dollars to travel to the International Space Station.