A Japanese billionaire has opened a competition to have eight people join him on the first ever civilian, commercial trip to the moon via the SpaceX Starship Rocket.
Yusaku Maezawa announced the competition in a video message, stating that he will pick strangers from across the globe to join him on the all-expenses-paid journey.
Maezawa explained in his video that the trip, which is set to take place in 2023, will last a total of six days. It will take three days to arrive at its destination, after which the rocket will circle around the moon and then travel back to Earth for another three days.
You could be on that spaceship.
You could be on the flight to the moon with Yusaku Maezawa. (Image via Kim Kyung-Hoon, Reuters)
The application process is rather simple.
You first must open Maezawa’s Dear Moon website which states “8 crew members wanted! For the mission to the moon in 2023.” It looks like this:
(Courtesy of Dear Moon website)
The form asks for basic information, such as the applicant’s name, email address, and country, although the latter is optional. It requires the applicant to upload a photo of themselves.
It also asks which of Maezawa’s social media accounts the applicant followers, and says he “will be making announcements about this project via social media, so please follow his accounts”.
Maezawa purchased all the available seats on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket when they were released to the public in 2018.
With the trip just two years away, SpaceX has made headlines recently due to failed launches.
On February 2, SpaceX launched a SN9 rocket prototype that ended in a fiery explosion just minutes after lift off.
The ending was similar to that of the SN8 rocket, which launched in December 2020, making this SpaceX’s second rocket explosion in three months.
⬡
Wiki Production Code: A0678
