Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Video: Japanese Billionaire Invites Eight People to Join Him on SpaceX Flight to Moon

Video: Japanese Billionaire Invites Eight People to Join Him on SpaceX Flight to Moon

Yusaku Maezawa is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector who launched online fashion retail website Zozotown in 2004. In 2018, Maezawa also founded a custom-fit apparel brand called ZOZO. He is estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of around $2 billion.

In a video released Tuesday morning, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa revealed that he will invite eight people to join him on SpaceX’s private space flight, dubbed dearMoon, to the moon in 2023.

"I have bought all the seats, so it will be a private ride," Maezawa explained.

Back in 2018, Maezawa purchased all seats aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship, a private spaceflight scheduled to take place in 2023 that will make a week-long journey to the moon and back.



The billionaire also encouraged people from “all kinds of backgrounds” to apply to join the mission.

Maezawa, who was revealed at the Starship’s first signed passenger in 2018, had previously announced that he would select a group of artists but has since decided to invite a wider audience to apply.



​In his Tuesday video, Maezawa said his original idea to invite artists “has since evolved” and the “maybe every single person is [sic] doing something creative could be called an artist.”

SpaceX’s Starship is a fully reusable, heavy-lift launch vehicle. SpaceX on Wednesday was slated to launch its latest Starship prototype on a test flight near Boca Chica Village in South Texas. The prototype aborted its first launch attempt before liftoff Wednesday afternoon after the vehicle’s engines sputtered off, space.com reported. When the Starship reattempted another launch Wednesday evening local time, it ended up exploding after a successful landing.

This is not the first time that SpaceX has experienced setbacks with its prototypes. Most recently in December 2020, a rocket produced by the leading company exploded following a test flight.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
The Great Western Exit: Why Best Citizens Are Fleeing the Rich World [PODCAST]
The New Robber Barons of Intelligence: Are AI Bosses More Powerful Than Rockefeller?
The End of the Old Order [Podcast]
Britain’s Democracy Is Now a Costume
The AI Gold Rush Is Coming for America’s Last Open Spaces [Podcast]
The Pentagon’s AI Squeeze: Eight Tech Giants Get In, Anthropic Gets Shut Out [Podcast]
The War Map: Professor Jiang’s Dark Theory of Iran, Trump, China, Russia, Israel, and the Coming Global Shock [Podcast]
Labour Is No Longer a National Party [Podcast]
AI Isn’t Stealing Your Job. It’s Dismantling It Piece by Piece.
Lawyers vs Engineers: Why China Builds While America Litigates [Podcast]
Churchill’s Glass: The Drunk, the Doctor, and the Myth Britain Refuses to Sober Up From
Apple issues an unusual warning: this is how your iPhone can be hacked without you doing anything
The Met Gala Meets the Age of Billionaire Backlash
Russian Oligarch’s Superyacht Crosses Hormuz via Iran-Controlled Route
Gunfire Disrupts White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Trump Is Evacuated
A Leak, a King, and a Fracturing Alliance
Inside the Gates Foundation Turmoil: Layoffs, Scrutiny, and the Cost of Reputational Risk
UK Biobank Breach Exposes Health Data of 500,000, Listed for Sale on Chinese Platform
KPMG Cuts Around 10% of US Audit Partners After Failed Exit Push
French Police Probe Suspected Weather-Data Tampering After Unusual Polymarket Bets on Paris Temperatures
News Roundup
Microsoft lost 2.5 millions users (French government) to Linux
Privacy Problems in Microsoft Windows OS
News roundup
Péter András Magyar and the Strategic Reset of Hungary
Hungary After the Landslide — A Strategic Reset in Europe
×