Yusaku Maezawa (center) and participants of the Dear Moon lunar trip. [Photo by Dear Moon Project website]
[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Choi Seung-hyun, known as T.O.P from the singer group Big Bang, is set to embark on a space trip with Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the online shopping mall ZOZOTOWN and dubbed the "Elon Musk of Japan."
According to the Dear Moon Project website on the 9th, Maezawa selected eight participants for his space travel project '#dearMoon,' including Big Bang's T.O.P, American YouTuber Tim Dodd, and Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam.
The project reportedly received applications from 1 million people across 249 countries, with Maezawa covering all the costs of the lunar trip. Through the Dear Moon website, T.O.P expressed his thoughts on being selected, saying, "As a Korean artist, I hope Dear Moon inspires the world, gives hope to people, and makes those with dreams feel that anything is possible."
The group will board the Starship spacecraft, currently being developed by Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX, and orbit the moon for six days before returning. They will not land on the lunar surface.
Maezawa, who established Japan's largest online shopping mall ZOZOTOWN, was ranked as the second wealthiest person in Japan by Forbes last year. His assets are estimated to be around 4 trillion won. Previously, in December last year, Maezawa completed a 12-day space trip aboard a SpaceX rocket and returned to Earth. It is reported that he paid 10 billion yen (approximately 96.381 billion won) for the lunar exploration.
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