Posted on 09/17/2018 8:07:34 PM PDT by Simon Green
SpaceX announced on Monday night that its first moonshot passenger will be Yusaku Maezawa, a billionaire estimated by Forbes to be the 18th richest person in Japan.
He'll be the first private passenger to visit the moon in the company's much hyped Big Falcon Rocket -- if the launch happens.
"I choose to go to the moon!" said the 42-year-old Maezawa, who founded Japan's largest online fashion mall and is worth almost $3 billion.
The announcement was made at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The launch is scheduled to happen in 2023.
It's not the first time the company has made this kind of announcement. In February 2017, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced the first two paying customers had put down a deposit to fly around the moon without landing in the smaller Falcon Heavy rocket sometime this year. In June, the company announced that wouldn't happen.
Earlier this year, on Feb. 6, the Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launching a red Tesla Roadster driven by a Starman mannequin
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I like that he’s taking 6 or so artists with him. He paid for the entire 100 seats, that couldn’t have been cheap.
I like that he’s taking 6 or so artists with him. He paid for the entire 100 seats, that couldn’t have been cheap.
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Musk said it will pay for a significant portion of the BFR development cost.
“He paid for the entire 100 seats, that couldn’t have been cheap”
He should give the seats to Hillary and Obama for their dedication to our country. What a great gift.
he better choose to come back from the moon also.
It’s not the first time the company has made this kind of announcement. In February 2017, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced the first two paying customers had put down a deposit to fly around the moon without landing in the smaller Falcon Heavy rocket sometime this year. In June, the company announced that wouldn’t happen.
...
This is the same person who paid for that flight.
What an amazing sight that would be, viewing the Moon from orbit.
I’m not convinced I’d have to go to the surface to be satisfied.
I’d have to give it some thought. If I was going to stay for a period of time, that would make it more meaningful.
Maybe he can take Sheila along to make a pit stop at Mars to check out the US flag.
Elon Musk is a certifiable lunatic and because he has tons of money, a great deal of it coming from government subsidies, some people prefer to use the term 'eccentric'. But a rose by any other name is still a rose and Musk is still a lunatic.
This poor fellow better hang on to his money until the rockets are ready to fuel, and then when he gets on top of what is essentially an ICBM... He better hope they do it right, otherwise he will be two or three day tragic headliner.
but will he do the other things?
Not because they’re easy. But because they are hard.
(The most asinine justification for expansion of government ever made.)
Hey Yusaku: Change your name to “Alice” and we’ll get a Jackie Gleason look alike to arrange it.
Drop her off on Mars, point in a random direction and say it's just over that small hill. Once she climbs over the hill, then blast off. Oh, we can all dream!
Drop her off on Mars, point in a random direction and say it's just over that small hill. Once she climbs over the hill, then blast off. Oh, we can all dream!
This is the same customer who would have taken the Dragon capsule and a friend around the Moon atop the Falcon Heavy, but that's off now.
I would go.
Same here, in a cold minute.
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