Roscosmos Space Agency

In this photograph released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, spaceflight subordinate Yusaku Maezawa of Japan, subordinate of the main unit of the caller Soyuz ngo to the International Space Station (ISS) gestures anterior the motorboat astatine the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (Pavel Kassin, Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)

MOSCOW – A Japanese billionaire and his shaper rocketed to abstraction Wednesday arsenic the archetypal self-paying abstraction tourists successful much than a decade.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and shaper Yozo Hirano, who plans to movie his mission, blasted disconnected for the International Space Station successful a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

The trio lifted disconnected arsenic scheduled astatine 12:38 p.m. (0738 GMT) aboard Soyuz MS-20 from the Russia-leaded Baikonur motorboat installation successful Kazakhstan.

Maezawa and Hirano are scheduled to walk 12 days successful space. The 2 volition beryllium the archetypal self-paying tourists to sojourn the abstraction presumption since 2009. The terms of the travel hasn’t been disclosed.

“I would similar to look astatine the Earth from space. I would similar to acquisition the accidental to consciousness weightlessness,” Maezawa said during a pre-flight quality league connected Tuesday. “And I besides person a idiosyncratic expectation: I’m funny however the abstraction volition alteration me, however I volition alteration aft this abstraction flight.”

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A institution that organized the formation said Maezawa compiled a database of 100 things to bash successful abstraction aft asking the nationalist for ideas. The database includes “simple things astir regular beingness to possibly immoderate different amusive activities, to much superior questions arsenic well,” Space Adventures President Tom Shelley said.

“His volition is to effort to stock the acquisition of what it means to beryllium successful abstraction with the wide public,” Shelley told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Maezawa made his luck successful retail fashion, launching Japan’s largest online manner mall, Zozotown. Forbes mag estimated his nett worthy astatine $2 billion.

The tycoon has besides booked a flyby astir the satellite aboard Elon Musk’s Starship that is tentatively scheduled for 2023. He’ll beryllium joined connected that travel by 8 contention winners.

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