Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Thursday announced that eight crew members and two backup crew members have been selected for dearMoon mission, the first all-civilian project to fly around the moon. The crew will take off aboard Starship, a rocket being developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp in California founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX, Inc.
In March 2021, Maezawa, wishing to open up the opportunity of going to space to more and more diverse talents, put out a call on dearMoon website for crew members to join him on the moon, and received more than one million applications from 249 countries and regions. The mission was first announced in 2018.
The profiles and interview videos of the eight crew members and two backup crew members who passed the selection, interviews, and medical check have now been released. The eight crew members from diverse backgrounds will fly around the Moon for approximately seven days with Maezawa and return to Earth.
Maezawa fulfilled his dream of going to space by staying on the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2021. His next mission is to travel to the moon with first all-civilian crew. The crew members were chosen from among those who had been openly invited from all over the world to join them in this challenge.
“The entire SpaceX team is excited for these extraordinary people to join the dearMoon mission! As they share their experiences flying around the Moon, this crew will inspire everyone back home on planet Earth,” said Jessica Jensen, SpaceX Vice President of Customer Operations and Integration.
“In advance of their flight, the SpaceX team continues to make great progress in the development of Starship, a fully and rapidly reusable interplanetary transportation system. We look forward to flying this crew of artists, content creators, and athletes from all around the world who will travel within 200 km of the lunar surface as they complete a full journey around the Moon before safely returning to Earth.”
