Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa To Become First Man To Fly On A Monster SpaceX Rocket

A Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon, Yusaku Maezawa, will be the first man to fly on a monster SpaceX rocket for an approximately seven-day trip around the Moon as early as 2023, and he plans to bring six to eight artists along.

Maezawa, 42, will be the first lunar traveler since the last U.S. Apollo mission in 1972. He paid an unspecified amount of money for the privilege.

'Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the Moon,' Maezawa said at SpaceX headquarters and rocket factory in Hawthorne, California, in the middle of metropolitan Los Angeles, late Monday.

'This is my lifelong dream.'


Maezawa is chief executive of Japan's largest online fashion mall, and is the 18th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3 billion, according to the business magazine Forbes.

He is the founder of ZOZO, a global company based in Japan where people can buy clothing online.