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:
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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:
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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?