Voice of London

DJ Steve Aoki, K-Pop phenomenon TOP, photographer Karim Iliya, and many others on Japanese billionaire’s list of people who’ll get to fly with him to the moon.

Yusaku Maezawa, 47, has been on the hunt for a handful of creative people who would be willing to undertake the first lunar journey since 1972 with him. By the looks of it, he found his crew.

He announced this with a tweet last night, in which he’s shown in a garden, looking up at the moon, followed with the camera slowly cutting to other members of his crew to reveal the members of the ‘dearMoon’ mission one-by-one.

Apart from Steve Aoki, other big names found on the guest list are Youtuber Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut), photographers Rhiannon Adam (Ireland) and Karim Iliya (UK), filmmaker Brendan Hall (US), and actor Dev Joshi (India).

However, the spaceship that would be used for transport, called ‘Starship’ by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has not yet received permission from the relevant regulators for takeoff in the US. It completed a test launch in May last year and has been grounded ever since in Texas, according to the BBC.

Mr. Maezawa, owner of his own online fashion brand Zozo, has been passionate about space travel for quite some time. Last year he ventured on to the ISS on a Russian rocket.

He first paid for his ticket back in 2018, after an agreement with Elon Musk, when he pledged to sponsor the voyage of eight other people selected by him, too.

Words: I. B. Beres | Subbing: Lumi Leinonen