Billionaire Maezawa chooses his passengers for Starship lunar flight
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa yesterday announced the eight passengers he will take with him on his private Starship flight around the Moon, its launch date still not set.
The full list of ten (including the two back-up passengers) is a wide mixture of individuals with a wide range of disciplines coming from a wide range of countries. For those interested in space, the one name that stood out and was very familiar was Tim Dodd, created of Everyday Astronaut. He created a video describing his selection as well as Maezawa’s entire project, which I have embedded below:
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Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa yesterday announced the eight passengers he will take with him on his private Starship flight around the Moon, its launch date still not set.
The full list of ten (including the two back-up passengers) is a wide mixture of individuals with a wide range of disciplines coming from a wide range of countries. For those interested in space, the one name that stood out and was very familiar was Tim Dodd, created of Everyday Astronaut. He created a video describing his selection as well as Maezawa’s entire project, which I have embedded below:
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Congrats to Tim. I’m sure he’s ‘over the moon’ right now.
Tim Dodd is an excellent choice. One of his strengths is that he is not an engineer, so when he explains something on his videos, he has researched it extremely thoroughly. That makes his willingness to do the research his strength in that area. Another of his strengths is his ability to explain things clearly. I expect him to produce many informative videos on the entire process and experience.
Two others are filmmakers and two more are actors, so I expect great things from them over their careers. The photographer had better document the heck out of the whole thing, including the training, otherwise I will be disappointed in her as a choice. The musician, dancers, and athlete, if they fly, should likewise get creative about how to express their experiences.
So far, the other civilian flights on Dragon have had technical goals. This one is strictly societal to the point of being touristy. I once worked in the same department as an astronaut (although not with him), and he said that after a flight all you have is your memories and photographs, so make many of both. It will be interesting to see how creative they are during the voyage.
All the choices are entertainers, mostly artists of one type or another. They tell stories for a living. Even though Tim has already started telling his stories, I cannot wait to hear, read, or watch the stories. Dear Moon has also started with the stories, as we can now meet these new astronauts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11hVwdl2S68&list=UULFnvMg1mBgLa_N5G1_6gnbIw&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/@dearmoon2023
Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon. We want to live the dream, even if it is only vicariously.
Edward noted: “Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon.”
I thought Heinlein had covered that. It would be interesting to compare the actual experience with the imagined one.
Since the government slow walked approvals so that SpaceX would not launch Starship 20 on Super Heavy 4 before SLS launched, we have to ponder whether Dear Moon will be allowed to fly before Artemis II. Isn’t it too bad that we have to wonder these things rather than think of it as a competition or a cooperation?