Japanese billionaire Maezawa cancels trip to the Moon due to uncertainty over the development of the SpaceX rocket

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Saturday canceled his planned flight around the moon in a SpaceX vehicle due to uncertainty over when it will be possible.

The tycoon in 2018 launched plans for the lunar trip. He bought seats for eight fellow passengers in 2022 for what would be his second space trip after your 12-day trip to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2021.

Maezawa was planning a trip to the Moon for 2023, a goal seen by most space observers as overly optimistic given the progress of SpaceX’s SpaceX megarocket project. It would have been the first private flight around the moon.

This project has become “unfeasible”, said the mission organizer on Saturday, in a statement published on its website. “With no clear certainty of the timeline in the short term, it was with regret that Maezawa made the inevitable decision to cancel the project.”

“To everyone who supported this project and looks forward to this development, we sincerely thank and apologize for this outcome,” he stated.

Maezawa had selected eight people for its “dearMoon” project of 1 million candidates. They included the lead rapper of K-pop group Big Bang, American DJ Steve Aoki and filmmaker Brendan Hall.

Separately on Saturday, Maezawa said in his X message: “I can’t plan my future in this situation and I feel terrible about making the crew members wait any longer, hence (I made) the difficult decision to cancel at this time. ”

“I apologize to those who were excited about carrying out this project,” he said.

He said he signed the contract with SpaceX in 2018, assuming launch would be possible by the end of 2023. “It’s a development project, so it is what it is, but it’s still uncertain when Starship will be able to launch.”

SpaceX’s two test flights of its megarocket last year ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. In a third test in Marchtheir spacecraft was lost while descending back to Earth.

Maezawa and his producer in December 2021 became the first paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009.

Maezawa made his fortune in fashion retail, launching Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown.