On his Twitter account, Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa excitedly wrote: “The dream has come true”. Thus, the dream of traveling to space for this billionaire has become a reality as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft took him to the International Space Station (ISS).
In an announcement on December 8, the Russian space agency Roscosmos stated that the rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 14:38 local time (Vietnam time), carrying the Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. This flight is expected to last for 6 hours.
Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (left) with Russian astronaut Alexander Misurkin and assistant Yozo Hirano. (Photo: Reuters).
The dream of traveling to space for Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has come true as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft took him to the International Space Station (ISS).
On his Twitter account, billionaire Maezawa excitedly noted “The dream has come true”. Accompanying him on this space mission are assistant Yozo Hirano and Russian astronaut Alexander Misurkin.
As such, Mr. Maezawa and Mr. Hirano are the first Japanese citizens to make the trip to the ISS since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama visited the Mir space station in 1990.
After the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Russian Poisk module on the ISS, the entire crew will spend 12 days there. Mr. Maezawa and assistant Hirano will document all activities of daily life on the ISS and upload this material to his personal YouTube channel.
Before the departure, the Japanese billionaire revealed a list of 100 things to accomplish on the ISS, including organizing a friendly badminton match on the ISS before returning to Earth on December 20, 2021. This trip marks the beginning of another journey for Maezawa with SpaceX, scheduled for 2023.
The Japanese billionaire is also the first private customer to participate in SpaceX’s lunar mission as more companies aim to commercialize space travel, targeting wealthy clientele. Currently, the Japanese billionaire is looking for 8 more companions for the 2023 journey. Participants must pass health checks and interviews.
In October, Roscosmos sent actress Yulia Peresild (37 years old) and director Klim Shipenko (38 years old) to the ISS to make the first film in space.
