The SpaceX Starship prototype, flying high above launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas
SpaceX
Will civilians fly around the moon for the first time in 2023? According to Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, the answer is yes. He is working on the DearMoon mission, which is intended to take a group of eight people to the moon SpaceX’s ever evolving Starship and orbit the Earth’s natural satellite on a six-day mission.
The project, announced by Maezawa and Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, in 2018, originally intended to invite artists from around the world to experience. The criteria for ‘artists’ were never clearly defined, but on Tuesday, in a new promotional video for the mission, Maezawa announced that DearMoon would be open to virtually everyone around the world.
“I started thinking that every person who does something creative can become an artist,” he says in the video you can see below.
Maezawa outlines ‘two important criteria’ for the civilian passengers. It also looks pretty flexible.
- “In whatever activity you want to go into, by going into space, I hope you can print the envelope of it, to help other people and the larger society in some way.”
- “You have to be willing to support other crew members who have similar aspirations.”
In total, Maezawa says 10 to 12 people will be on board for the first flight around the moon. The billionaire entrepreneur also started a a “matchmaking” TV show to find a girlfriend he can take to the moon on the mission, but Maezawa canceled the project shortly after its announcement.
Musk appears in the video to explain the mission expects to “take humans farther than any human is ever away from planet Earth”, as it will fly past the moon and walk around it to return home.
Musk says he is “very confident” that the Starship will be “many, many times” before 2023, and that it is “safe enough for human transport” by the time the mission is planned. Musk has previously tended to make these kinds of claims and also missed a deadline, and the Starship prototypes have yet to land successfully. The following prototype is scheduled to fly and land this week – but it’s far from the moon and back.
The selection process has yet to be clearly defined for DearMoon, but the schedule of the site appears to be that the crew will be selected by July 2021. You can register now in advance and you will want to hear more “after 15 March 2021” at some point.
We contacted the DearMoon team to explain the details.
Another SpaceX mission is aimed at sending civilians into space soon. Known as Inspiration4, it intends to send people on orbits a SpaceX Crew Dragon and lifts on top of a Falcon 9. It is also bankrolled by a billionaire, Jared Isaacman, and could fly before the end of the year.
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