Soichi Noguchi, a JAXA astronaut who’s slated to fly on SpaceX’s upcoming Crew-1 mission, say he’s talking to Maezawa about possibly joining the circumlunar flight.
SpaceX aims to slingshot a small group of people around the moon inside Starship, the company’s forthcoming Mars spacecraft, sometime in the next few years.
Who will make the week-long circumlunar voyage is yet to be announced. But Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi — who’s about to fly aboard SpaceX’s second human mission to the International Space Station, called Crew-1 — tells Business Insider he’s actively discussing a spot on the mission.
The only publicly confirmed passenger for SpaceX’s private moon mission is Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, who’s paying untold millions for the experience. In September 2018, SpaceX hosted a press conference for Maezawa in its rocket factory with company founder Elon Musk at his side.
“Finally I can tell you that I choose to go to the moon,” Maezawa said during his debut.
“He’s paying a lot of money that would help with the ship and its booster,” Musk said at the time. “He’s ultimately paying for the average citizen to travel to other planets.”