Renowned American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, headed by Elon Musk, recently introduced the world to the company’s first space tourist Yusaku Maezawa, who will travel along with a bunch of artists on this historic trip in 2023.
“Finally, I can tell you that I choose to go to the moon!” said Maezawa, at a press conference and introduced himself as a skateboarder, drummer, and an entrepreneur who became a billionaire in his mid-30s, successfully heading the Japanese e-commerce Zozotown. Having a net worth of about 3 million dollars, this 42-year-old is an ardent art collector possessing a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting for $110.5 million.
“Together with Earth’s top artists, I will be heading to the moon…just a little earlier than everyone else,” said Maezawa who is taking 6 world’s best artists along with him to get inspired with the moon and reflect the same in their work.
He said, “I choose to go to the Moon, with the artists. If Pablo Picasso had been able to see the moon up-close, what kind of paintings would he have drawn? If John Lennon could have seen the curvature of the Earth, what kind of songs would he have written? If they had gone to space, how the world would have looked today?” wrote Maezawa.
“We are honored that he’s choosing us – we’re not choosing him,” said Elon Musk who is planning to use the 387-foot Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) for the moon flight. With BFR, Musk hopes that they can take visitors to Mars too. Talking about the money involved in the trip, he said: “Maezawa’s payment is big enough to have a material effect on paying for cost and development of BFR.”
