THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond: SpaceX Has Revealed Its First Passenger to Fly Aboard the Company's Big Falcon Rocket!

Monday, September 17, 2018

SpaceX Has Revealed Its First Passenger to Fly Aboard the Company's Big Falcon Rocket!

An artist's concept of SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) soaring into the sky.

Elon Musk / SpaceX

Just a few hours ago, SpaceX revealed to the world that Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa will fly around the Moon aboard SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) no earlier than 2023. Maezawa, who was originally supposed to do a lunar flyby aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket later this year (Musk cancelled the flight after deciding that the Falcon Heavy won't be human-rated, and instead launch passengers aboard the BFR instead), bought all seats aboard the spaceship so 6 to 8 fellow artists can fly 404,000 miles [the maximum distance the Big Falcon Spaceship (BFS) will travel as it circumnavigates the Moon during the 2023 voyage] into space with him. The down payment that Maezawa put down is supposedly substantial enough to cover most of the developmental costs for the first BFS...while as a whole, the development program for BFR is expected to have a $5 billion price tag.

Yusaku Maezawa created a project known as #dearMoon, which is meant to inspire artists such as filmmakers, painters, photographers, architects and other creative individuals to join him on BFS' 4 to 5-day journey around the Moon. Totally inspiring!

Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa is set to fly with 6 to 8 fellow artists toward the Moon aboard SpaceX's first BFR as early as 2023.