American DJ and record producer Steve Aoki will be one of ten crew members chosen to take part in Project dearMoon.
Steve Aoki has now been announced as one of the first to be selected for the dearMoon primary crew, which also includes Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa. The week-long mission will be the first-ever civilian space mission, set to take place in 2023 with the help of Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX.
The six-day dearMoon mission was first brought to the public’s attention back in 2018 after Maezawa bought every seat and promised “as many talented individuals as possible the opportunity to go” on the first lunar mission that he titled “dearMoon.” By March 2021, Maezawa had received a whopping one million applications from curious space enthusiasts.
The passengers that will be going on the mission are Steve Aoki, Yusaku Maezawa, Youtuber Tim Dodd, K-Pop rapper Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P., an Irish photographic artist Rhiannon Adam, Indian actor Dev Joshi, documentary filmmaker Brendan Hall, and photographer Karim Iliya.
The billionaire shared his thoughts and excitement about the mission with Mixmag, “I’m very thrilled to have these amazing people join me on my journey to the moon and excited to see what inspiring creations they come up with in space.”
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The two-time Grammy nominee was also asked to share what he thought about the dearMoon mission, to which he replied, “Since I was a little child I was dreaming of going to the moon. It’s becoming more and more real every day. Still hard to believe but very excited for this amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To the moon!”
There has been no official date for the launch from SpaceX, with SpaceX’s new rocket, Starship, having still to complete its first orbital test flight and clear all safety measures. Many wait in anticipation for the first-ever civilian space mission, said to orbit around the moon.
Featured image via Discovery Canada YouTube
