Star DJ Steve Aoki and K-pop star T.O.P. will be joining Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in humanity’s first civilian trip to the moon.
On Friday, Yusaku released the list of 8 crew participants that will join him on a commercial space flight to the moon that is dubbed the “dearMoon” project. Joining Aoki and T.O.P., are Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam, Czech designer Yemi A.D., American space YouTuber Tim Dodd, American filmmaker Brendan Hall, British filmmaker Karim Iliya and Indian actor Dev D. Joshi. US Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu will be joining as backup crew members. The voyage will take place in 2023 and is expected to last 8 days from launch to finish.
With a net worth of approximately 1.9 billion dollars, Yusaku purchased every ticket for the SpaceX voyage which has been in the works since 2018. The upcoming flight follows his trip on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 12-day stint last year.
The 8 cabin crew members as well as 2 backup members were selected from over one million applicants.
“I applied for dearMoon because as a young boy, I always wanted to go into space. It’s been a dream of mine for decades,” explains Aoki, who plans to DJ during the trip and write a song about it.
“I feel great pride and responsibility in becoming the first Korean civilian going to the moon,” TOP said in a video posted after the announcement.
