Japan’s punk billionaire Yusaku Maezawa revealed as SpaceX’s first moon tourist. He wants some company for the ride

Maezawa, the 42-year-old founder of online retailer Zozo, says he plans to invite six to eight creative people as guests on his weeklong journey aboard Elon Musk’s next-generation rocket

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SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk, left, announces Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, right, as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon on Monday in Hawthorne, California. Photo: AP

Published: 10:15am, 18 Sep 2018Updated: 9:26pm, 18 Sep 2018

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space transportation company, on Monday named its first private passenger as Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo – and he wants some company for the ride.

A former drummer in a punk band, billionaire Maezawa, 42, will take a trip around the moon aboard its forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, taking the race to commercialise space travel to new heights.

Maezawa said that he plans to invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people on the week-long journey.

The first passenger to travel to the moon since the United States’ Apollo missions ended in 1972, Maezawa’s identity was revealed at an event Monday evening at the company’s headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

In moves typical of his publicity-seeking style, Musk, who is also the billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, had previously teased a few tantalising details about the trip and the passenger’s identity, but left major questions unanswered.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa speaks on Monday in Hawthorne, California, after SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced him as the person who would be the first private passenger on a trip around the moon. Photo: AP

Yusaku Maezawa, the chief executive of Zozo, which operates Japan's popular fashion shopping site Zozotown. Photo: Reuters

On Thursday, Musk tweeted a picture of a Japanese flag. He followed that up on Sunday with tweets showing new artist renderings of the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, the super heavy-lift launch vehicle that Musk promises will shuttle the passenger to the moon and eventually fly humans and cargo to Mars, using the hashtag #OccupyMars.