Billionaire cancels lunar orbit trip aboard SpaceX's Starship due to development delays

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has announced that he is cancelling his lunar orbit flight aboard SpaceX's Starship due to ongoing development delays.

Maezawa had signed up for the "dearMoon" project back in 2018, but with the launch date still uncertain and the potential for it to be pushed well into the 2030s, he has made the difficult decision to cancel the trip.

In a series of posts, Maezawa expressed his frustration over the uncertainty surrounding the Starship launch date, stating that he cannot plan his future in this situation. He also apologized to those who were excited for the project to happen and to the crew members who would have been involved.

The dearMoon project, announced by Maezawa and Elon Musk in 2018, aimed to take a group of artists, photographers, YouTubers, and a member of a Korean boy band on a lunar orbit flight. However, SpaceX's focus shifted after NASA selected Starship for its Artemis program, leading to the deprioritization of dearMoon.

Meanwhile, the billionaire has already been to space, spending 12 days aboard the International Space Station.