Japanese billionaire's moon project canceled due to schedule delays

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced that he has decided to cancel his long-awaited trip to the Moon aboard SpaceX's Starship rocket. The decision, as explained by Maezawa in a post on the social network X, is due to the successive postponements of the project.

Maezawa, founder of online fashion store Zozo Inc, signed the contract for the trip in 2018, when the mission was expected to launch in 2023. However, he highlighted that “it is still uncertain when Starship will be released”.

“I can't plan my future in this situation and I feel terrible about making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this time. I apologize to anyone who was excited about this project”Maezawa wrote in the post.

Uncertainties in the development of Starship

SpaceX, led by tycoon Elon Musk, is still in the Starship testing phase. The latest launch attempt showed that there are significant technical challenges to be overcome before the first official mission.

In a separate post on the official dearMoon mission website, Maezawa reaffirmed that uncertainty in the project's development was the main cause of the cancellation. “It's a development project, so it is what it is, but it's still uncertain when Starship might be launched,” explained.

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_{SpaceX rocket launch (Photo: reproduction/Disclosure/Getty Images Embed/Timothy A. Clary)}

Repercussion and history

After being announced in 2018 as the first passenger of a private company, the billionaire paid a visit to the International Space Station in 2021, aboard the rocket Soyuz. The trip, which would orbit the Moon, would take some of the famous figures from the South Korean pop world, such as the TOP singer and also the North American DJ, Steve Aoki. However, with schedule delays, Maezawa decided to cancel the expedition to the Moon, postponing his big dream to an indefinite date.

Space community reaction

The space community and fans of the project dearMoon were disappointed with the postponement of the grand launch, the mission now faces moments of uncertainty, the SpaceX has not yet officially commented on Maezawa's cancellation of the trip, but technical challenges with Starship continue to be a significant obstacle to the company's ambitious plans to undertake manned trips into deep space.

With Maezawa's cancellation, the future of the dearMoon mission remains open. It remains to be seen how SpaceX will deal with the technical and planning challenges to finally make the long-awaited trip to the Moon.

Featured Photo: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (Reproduction/Disclosure/Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP)