Japanese Billionaire Unveils the 8 Artists He'll Fly To the Moon On SpaceX's Starship dearMoon Flight

A Japanese billionaire picked his crewmates for the first-ever artist-centered mission. Space.com reports: Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online fashion retailer, announced the eight people who would be flying with him on the dearMoon mission, which aims to use a SpaceX Starship to fly around the moon as soon as next year. 'I hope each and every one will recognize the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the moon and back,' Maezawa says in the video in Japanese, with a translation provided in-video.

Riding along with Maezawa will be:

- Steve Aoki, D.J., producer and electronic dance music artist with several Billboard-charting studio albums;

- Tim Dodd, YouTube creator of the 'Everyday Astronaut' channel (Dodd has interviewed SpaceX founder Elon Musk multiple times on camera);

- Yemi A.D., artist and choreographer known for his work with JAD Dance Company and with Ye (formerly Kanye West);

- Karim Iliya, photographer whose publications include National Geographic Magazine;

- Rhiannon Adam, a photographer who has been supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society and won multiple awards, according to their website;

- Brendan Hall, filmmaker on projects such as the two-hour documentary 'Blood Sugar Rising' about diabetes in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database;

- Dev Joshi, an 'Indian television actor known for portraying the role of Baal Veer in Sony Sab's Baal Veer and Baalveer Returns,' according to the Internet Movie Database;

- T.O.P., a South Korean rapper known as the lead for the boy band Big Bang;

- Two backup members: dancer Miyu, and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington.

Each member of the dearMoon crew was briefly quoted in a video from the dearMoon YouTube channel, and the announcement was confirmed on Dodd's and Maezawa's Twitter feeds.

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