Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur, purchased the first crewed flight aboard SpaceX’s Starship scheduled for the year 2023. He called the mission ‘DearMoon’ and invited the public to participate in a contest to win a seat to join him on a voyage around the Moon, 238,900 miles away from Earth. The contestants filled out an application where they uploaded a photo of themselves and answered a set of questions about how they would inspire humanity if selected. DearMoon will only select 8 people out of 1 million who participated from 249 countries and regions around the world. The selection process was then narrowed down to a few hundred who were asked to submit a video about why they deserve a seat aboard Starship’s debut circumlunar voyage.
We would like to open up more opportunities for multitalented people to go to space.#dearMoon #dearMoonproject pic.twitter.com/5KTlwBSmRL
— dearMoon (@dearmoonproject) July 30, 2021
In July, DearMoon released a teaser video featuring some of the contestants who could potentially win the flight to space. The video features a diverse group of people with a variety of talents and aspirations. Perhaps, the most recognizable individual who participated in the DearMoon contest is music producer DJ Steve Aoki (video below).
Coming close to the end of the selection process for #dearMoon ( @dearmoonproject )!
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) (@yousuckMZ) July 16, 2021
8 crew members to be selected from 1M applications worldwide!
See some of the applicants in this video!https://t.co/hVpWC8jpXn pic.twitter.com/cJGYnF1hYY
On Tuesday, August 31, DearMoon project representatives announced they already selected the finalists that could ride SpaceX’s first crewed Starship flight. However, they did not disclose who the finalists are, nor how many made it to the final round of the selection process. “Here’s an update on the selection process for all dearMoon applicants… Candidates who will be going to the next round have now all completed a medical check-up,” they stated. “To those who have not gone that far, we thank you for applying and we hope for your continued support.”
Here’s an update on the selection process for all dearMoon applicants…
— dearMoon (@dearmoonproject) September 1, 2021
Candidates who will be going to the next round have now all completed a medical check-up. To those who have not gone that far, we thank you for applying and we hope for your continued support.🚀
Beautiful stainless-steel prototypes of Starship are undergoing testing in South Texas since 2019. Multiple test vehicles have conducted incredible high-altitude flight tests. SpaceX is getting ready to perform its first uncrewed orbital flight test this year, which is set to provide engineers with valuable data to develop the spacecraft. “I’m highly confident that we will have reached orbit many times with Starship before 2023,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in July, he believes “It will be safe enough for human transport by 2023. It’s looking very promising,” he said. Read about SpaceX's Starship development progress in the previous TESMANIAN article: SpaceX Launched Starhopper Two Years Ago, Let’s Look Back At Starship’s Amazing Development!
#SpaceX #Starship @elonmusk
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) August 28, 2021
SpaceX Launched Starhopper Two Years Ago, Let’s Look Back At Starship’s Amazing Development!
In this article I summarize all that has happened since 2019
from explosive tests to successful Starship flights☆
via @Tesmanian_comhttps://t.co/FadRlsfoo7
All Images Source: DearMoon & SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
