Three new spacefarers launched to the Worldwide House Station this morning, a crew consisting of a Russian cosmonaut and two Japanese area vacationers. One of many vacationers on board was Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire who introduced his intention just a few years again to fly across the Moon on SpaceX’s future Starship rocket at some point.
The trio lifted off on prime of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan at 2:38AM ET, docking with the area station round six hours later at 8:40AM ET. Maezawa’s crewmates embrace Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japenese vacationer Yozo Hirano, who’s Maezawa’s producer and supervisor. The group is slated to spend roughly 12 days on the ISS earlier than heading again to Earth on December nineteenth.
Their journey is a part of Russia’s reemergence into the world of orbital area tourism. The flight comes simply two months after Russia launched a Russian actress and director to the ISS to movie scenes for an upcoming film known as The Problem. In the meantime, Maezawa and Hirano are flying to the ISS by way of a partnership with House Adventures, an organization that brokers journeys to area for vacationers. The corporate helped orchestrate journeys to the ISS for seven individuals within the early 2000s on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. Nonetheless, it paused flights after the retirement of NASA’s House Shuttle in 2011, because the area company wanted seats on Russia’s Soyuz rockets to get US astronauts and worldwide companions to the ISS.
With the assistance of House Adventures, Maezawa went by way of coaching in Russia’s Star Metropolis to assist put together for his flight. Maezawa plans to movie his time on the ISS with the assistance of Hirano and publish movies of his adventures on his YouTube channel. Earlier than his flight, Maezawa additionally got here up with a listing of “100 issues to do in area,” in response to House Adventures. One of many objects he hopes to do on his record is play badminton with Misurkin.
Maezawa, who made his fortune by way of a web based trend retail enterprise known as Zozotown, has already made his curiosity in spaceflight well-known. The billionaire introduced in 2018 that he had bought a visit across the Moon on SpaceX’s future Starship rocket, a car the corporate is constructing to take individuals to the lunar floor and Mars sometime. For that mission, dubbed Pricey Moon, Maezawa plans to convey as much as eight individuals with him alongside for the journey. Initially he had hoped to convey all artists with him, however in March, he launched a contest to permit anybody around the globe to use to fly with him, “to present as many gifted people as potential the chance to go.” Maezawa additionally introduced plans in 2020 to movie a courting actuality present to discover a girlfriend to go to area with him, however that concept was ultimately deserted.
In July, Maezawa posted a video of a few of the filmed purposes despatched to him by individuals who had been concerned with flying across the Moon with him. Within the video, he stated his staff was within the ultimate levels of screening to select the finalists. In the meantime, SpaceX’s Starship rocket has but to fly to orbit. The corporate has flown prototypes of the rocket to excessive altitudes above the Earth and tried to land them again on the bottom. Solely a kind of prototypes has been capable of stick the touchdown with out exploding afterward. SpaceX is working towards its first orbital launch in both January or February 2022. Even when that could be a success, there are nonetheless loads of milestones the corporate should obtain earlier than it could safely fly individuals to the neighborhood of the Moon after which land them again on Earth.
With Starship’s timeline considerably doubtful, this journey to the ISS is a a lot speedier method for Maezawa get his area repair whereas he waits. Maezawa and his crew will be part of two Russian cosmonauts, three NASA astronauts, and a German astronaut from the European House Company who’re already residing on the ISS.
