Japanese billionaire cancels private SpaceX moon mission, crew devastated | Mashable.
Japanese billionaire cancels private SpaceX moon mission, crew devastated
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| Credit: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images |
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has cancelled his planned flight to the moon aboard SpaceX's Starship. It's an understandable decision considering that Starship has yet to have a completely successful test flight.
The dearMoon project announced the cancellation of the civilian moon mission on Friday. In a statement on their website, dearMoon cited SpaceX's failure to launch by the end of 2023 as planned, as well as uncertainty regarding the mission's future.
"[L]aunch within 2023 became unfeasible, and without clear schedule certainty in the near-term, it is with a heavy heart that Maezawa made the unavoidable decision to cancel the project," read a statement from dearMoon.
Maesawa followed this up with his own posts on X, expressing disappointment at his scuttled lunar dreams.
"I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023," Maezawa wrote on Friday. "It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch."
Maesawa initially announced his private SpaceX moon flight in 2018, intending to bring along a handful of artists to create works inspired by the trip. He did briefly expand the guest list in Jan. 2020, searching for a "life partner" willing to go on the most intense romantic getaway ever, but quickly abandoned that idea just a few weeks later.
In the end, the billionaire had settled on a crew of eight creatives, including U.S. DJ Steve Aoki, K-pop artist T.O.P aka Choi Seung-hyun, and YouTuber Tim Dodd. Now they'll all have to look for other transport if they want to get any closer to the moon. Maezawa has at least ventured to space before, taking a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station for a 12-day trip in 2021.
"I can’t plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time," Maezawa posted. "I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen."
dearMoon's cancellation wasn't a completely outlandish possibility. Maezawa provided an update to the project last November, acknowledging that the mission wouldn't go ahead in 2023 and that he wasn't sure when it would happen. However, some of the crew members have publicly expressed disappointment and even criticised Maezawa for his decision to abort the mission.
"You didn’t ask us if we minded waiting or give us an option or discuss that you were thinking of cancelling until you’d already made the decision," photographer and crew member Rhiannon Adam responded to Maezawa on X. "I can only speak for myself but I’d have waited till it was ready."
"Our crew, from the many conversations we’ve had together, were ready to wait as long as it took for this flight to happen," filmmaker Brendan Hall concurred in a lengthy statement, emphasising that the cancellation was Maezawa's decision alone. "Through these years, our crew has stayed well informed of Starship's development through publicly available information and discourse, and were well aware that we would potentially be investing many years into this mission. The cancellation of this mission was sudden, brief, and unexpected."
"Had I known this could have ended within a year and a half of it being publicly announced, I would’ve never agreed to it," wrote Dodd in an X post. "We had no prior knowledge of this possibility. I voiced my opinions, even before the announcement, that it was improbable for dearMoon to happen in the next few years."
Still, Dodd noted that while he was "extremely disappointed," going to space would have just been a "cherry on top" of his career.
"I have guilt about being upset about a gift that was retracted," Dodd said. "A part of me doesn’t feel I’m entitled to grieve since I wasn’t entitled to this mission in the first place. But the reality is, I’ll need to allow myself to grieve this loss as it became a big part of my life, my dreams, and my visions."
SpaceX conducted Starship's first test flight last April, followed by a second one in November. Both ended in failure and fiery explosions. Its third flight in March was far more successful, with Starship managing to reach orbital speed for the very first time. Yet even this test ended earlier than intended, with SpaceX losing contact with Starship before they could attempt the planned landing.
Space flight is a difficult, dangerous endeavour, so it isn't shocking that Starship's first flights haven't ended well. Even so, it's clear that Starship still has a long way to go before it's ready to transport living human beings.
Topics SpaceX
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I reckon he discovered a origional Mk4 Toyota Supra and has decided to bring it back for the masses instead.
ReplyDeleteBecause Its a real rocket!! He knows that surely!! 😎
Because he found out the odds of survival are pretty slim lol
ReplyDeleteBecause he knows it’s not possible
ReplyDeleteProbably the smartest thing he’s ever done
ReplyDeleteRICH ENTITLED MORONS ARE EVERY WHERE
ReplyDeleteSmart muhfucka
ReplyDeleteCon tầu ban đầu được lên lịch đưa thường dân lên mặt trăng năm 2023.
ReplyDeleteDear Moon was always a vapor-ware project.
ReplyDeleteThe timing coincides with Musk admitting they’re stumped on the heat shield tiles.
ReplyDeleteI just got permanently banned from the official Musk sub for suggesting that his recent speech about how he's totally committed to going to the moon was to save face for dearMoon being cancelled.
Deletethanks. kind of depressing that even after 50 years of materials science progression we're still stuck on the same issue that killed the space shuttle.
DeleteYeah its a hard problem I know.
What will really burn you is when you learn about the starlight material that has been around since the 80s and while not solving the issue would put us leaps and bounds ahead in progress. Yet no one is using it despite repeatedly being tested and proven by many agencies.
Delete
DeleteFrom what ive read, the inventor was so paranoid about reverse engineering that they never let anyone chemically analyze it. He died and took the secret recipe with him to the grave.
It sounds like a great ablative material. My understanding is that SpaceX wants fully reusable TPS.
In 2011 he partnered with a company and they were able to replicate it, but who knows why he stopped there. Hopefully we will get the tech soon and the industry will get a fresh revolution.
DeleteStarlite has been reproduced. It produces carbon foam when heated which insulates one side of it from heat.
DeleteI'm not a materials scientist but you can bet Boeing, NASA and SpaceX know about this stuff and for some valid reason it can't be used as a heatshield.
This really sucks for Tim Dodd (the everyday astronaut) and everyone else who was lined up for the Dear Moon mission :( I feel so bad for them, it’s a real smashed dream :(
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I can't imagine how devastated I would feel.
DeleteThe project objective was to have eight passengers travel with Maezawa for free around the Moon on a six-day tour. Maezawa said that they expected the experience of space tourism to inspire the accompanying passengers in the creation of something new. If successful, the art would have been exhibited some time after returning to Earth with the goal of promoting peace around the world.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a stupid project lol
8 artists to create art based on being inspired by a moon flyby? Seems just elitist somehow.
But is he still scheduled for the sun flyinto?
ReplyDeleteI hope he didn’t give them a deposit
ReplyDeleteLike the rest of the American taxpayer money that got siphoned to Texas?
DeleteSend musk. Time to put money where mouth is.
ReplyDeleteCan Muskrat fly to Mars already?
ReplyDeleteThat would’ve been nice to have another ocean x type situation but this time in space
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletehttps://media.tenor.com/XQLVLptLIBEAAAAM/maes-b-lost-in-a-field.gif
DeleteDont know why that comment posted to this thread lol apologies
DeleteNow SpaceX have full list of Starship related failures.
ReplyDeleteWise decision, seeing SpaceX performance externally is enough to make me think that it is a death sentence, and he's likely going to have a better info
ReplyDeleteWhat aerospace project isn't a "death sentence" during its "we're not going to risk humans on it" phase of testing?
DeleteApparently, he came to his senses!
ReplyDeleteWho would ride this trash can?
A lot of people if you look at SpaceX's accomplishments
DeleteIt has accomplished a lot, but hasn't sent people out of earth's orbit and hasn't done much other than launch things into orbit. That is just one part of the game.
DeleteWhat have they done? All their satellites are launched from Greenland with helium balloon. Just more smoke and mirrors.
Deletehe cancelled a service that wasnt provided?
ReplyDeleteThe only news here is that elon musk conned everyone by promising them everything and delivering nothing
Space is hard. Look at what SpaceX has accomplished, they have mastered reusable rockets and launch more rockets than anybody in the world.
DeleteLaunching a rocket that has the footprint of a house and landing it is a huge feat. If SpaceX just wanted to launch it and dispose of it they would have done that by now.
vs the failed missions of Boeing and NASA? I have more belief that Space X will complete the task and not continue to waste tax dollars like the other 2
DeleteSanta Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are teleconferencing with a virtual meeting to get this all worked out! Samantha the Witch and Superman are already on the lunar surface with "WELCOME" signs.
ReplyDelete"I was supposed to fly to the moon by the end of 2023"
ReplyDeletelmao, charlatan Elon at it again...
When will society stop accepting billionaires burning thousand of hours of sweat from other people for doing their vanity shenanigans?
ReplyDeleteWhen other people will start having billionaire's ideas making themselves and the current billionaires, millionaires.
Delete"Billionaire's ideas" hahha ok, cuck.
DeleteGood. Now they have time to work on non wasteful projects.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn’t Elon just buy his kids some joyrides???
ReplyDeleteCheapskate!
He had like 11 kids already. He's focusing on repopulatin mars with his own seed. Spending that money on joyrides would be a waste.
DeleteWell, he can't complain if other billionaires also cancel their joyrides and deplete Spacex of a revenue stream then!
DeleteFrom what I have seen on YouTube most japanese people have mental issues.
ReplyDeleteThis decision makes sense though. He can always order it up again after the rocket is actually flying.
DeleteHe lost his place in the queue.
DeleteSpaceX's high launch cadence with Falcon 9 wiped out the industry's launch backlog. They wouldn't be launching nearly as often as they do now if it wasn't for Starlink. As for Starship, that's designed to be fully and rapidly reusable within as little as a day. There isn't going to be a long wait in the queue.
Deletereusable within a day wtf are u on brother? care to share some of that stuff.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_reusable_launch_system_development_program
DeleteThe project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle first stage to the launch site within minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad, following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours.
They want to land the boosters (first stage) back on the launch tower, secure them with a mechanical arm, and have them ready to go again in as little as 6 hours. Which could be necessary to launch a bunch of tanker flights. The ship itself in 24 hours.
sure bro as i said share some stuff u are tripping on coz current Falcon 9 turnaround record is 21 freaking DAYS and usually its more than a month or two and they definetly would've used oportunity to showcase their prowess if they could complete a turnaround in 24h they just can't. Not to mention starship is way more complex than F9's since they yet to have a successful reentry and 2 first launches was a disaster. Looking at situation at SpaceX objectively it's doubtfull they can even deliver starship on time not to mention even more complicated reuse of it.
DeleteThis is an easily solvable problem that the billionaire is cowardly giving up on.
ReplyDelete1. Give me the money.
2. I'll wait.
3. I will call you when we're launching.
🤷♀️
It's his money, he gets to decide how he prefers to spend it.
DeleteSpaceX shouldn't have given him such an easy way out in these uncertain times.
makes sense, life is short, you can't spend 10 years on standby, need to get to doing other things
ReplyDelete