Elon Musk names billionaire space tourist who will fly around the moon in Space X rocket
Elon Musk has revealed the identity of the billionaire who has paid to fly around the moon in a SpaceX rocket – in what is a giant leap for space tourism.
Fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa paid an undisclosed sum to fly on SpaceX’s ‘Big Falcon Rocket’ spaceship, with a plan to launch in 2023.
Former punk-band drummer Maezawa will join the 24 other astronauts who have flown beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field, in missions between 1968 and 1972.
At an event at Space X’s headquarters in Los Angeles, Musk said, ‘He’s a very brave person to do this.’
Maezawa said, ‘Finally, I can tell you that I choose to go to the Moon! I choose to go to the moon with artists!’
Maezawa famously spent $110 million on a 1982 painting by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and says he wants to invite other artists to join him in space.
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He said, ‘I would like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the Moon.
‘These artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth, and these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us.’
Maezawa would not reveal how much his ticket had cost him – but said it was considerably more than what he had spent on the Basquiat painting.
