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SpaceX Crew Dragon brings 4 space station fliers back to Earth after 6-month voyage

By William Harwood

Updated on: September 4, 2023 / 8:38 PM EDT / CBS News

Blazing like a meteor as it streaked high above northern Florida, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft safely carried four space station fliers back to Earth early Monday, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville to wrap up a six-month stay in orbit.

Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE crewmate Sultan Alneyadi undocked from the station's forward Harmony module at 7:05 a.m. EDT Sunday to kick off a 17-hour flight back to Earth.

The automated Crew Dragon executed a 16-minute de-orbit thruster firing starting at 11:24 p.m., slowing the spacecraft by about 250 mph -- just enough to drop it back into the lower atmosphere for a steep southwest-to-northeast trajectory carrying it above Central America and north Florida.

Viewed from the Kennedy Space Center, the returning spacecraft looked like a slow-motion meteor blazing a brilliant trail across the sky as the Crew Dragon was enveloped in a cloud of super-heated plasma, slowing from orbital velocity of 17,100 mph to just 300 mph or so in a matter of minutes.

With SpaceX recovery crews and NASA observers standing by, the capsule's four main parachutes deployed on time, filled with air and lowered the spacecraft to a gentle splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida's east coast at 12:17 a.m.

"On behalf of NASA and SpaceX, welcome back home," a flight controller radioed from the California rocket builder's control room. "Thank you for flying SpaceX."

"We greatly appreciate all the support, from all the initial training, to the launch, throughout the mission. ... This has been incredible," Bowen replied. "We certainly appreciate it and look forward to working with you all again."

The deep overnight landing was the result of a combination of factors tied to the space station's orbit and the Crew Dragon's ability to reach a specified target on a specific date within required weather constraints and other factors. In this case, that all worked out to a late night descent.

SpaceX crews reached the Crew Dragon within minutes of splashdown. After making sure no propellant vapors were present, cables were connected and the spacecraft was hauled aboard the SpaceX recovery ship. As usual with long-duration flights, recovery personnel planned to carry Bowen and company out of the Crew Dragon, one at a time, as they began readjusting to the unfamiliar tug of gravity.

Before departing the space station, Bowen, a former submariner, said he most looked forward to "the nice ocean air and peaceful calm seas. That'll be really nice to get back to."

Hoburg said he was looking forward to "a real shower." Alneyadi said he couldn't wait to rejoin friends and family, along with enjoying "a real hot cup of coffee." As for Fedyaev, "I think my dream is a bed for good sleeping. I can lay on one side. Another side. My back. Sleeping!"

After initial medical checks aboard the recovery ship, all four fliers will be flown to shore by helicopter. A NASA jet was standing by to carry them back to Houston and the Johnson Space Center for debriefing and reunions with friends and family.

Left behind in orbit were three Soyuz crew members -- station commander Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio -- and four Crew Dragon fliers launched August 26 to replace Bowen and company: Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio were launched to the station last September and are wrapping up a marathon 371-day mission.

They originally planned to spend six months in space, but their Soyuz ferry ship was disabled by a major coolant leak last December. The Russians opted to send up a replacement spacecraft, and the crew's mission was extended by six months.

A fresh Soyuz crew -- commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara -- is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 15.

Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio will undock and return to Earth 12 days later. In so doing, Rubio will set a new U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut.

Launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 2, the Crew-6 fliers spent 185 days and 22 hours off planet, circling the globe 2,976 times while traveling 78.9 million miles through space. At splashdown, Bowen, the only space veteran on the crew, had logged 227 days in space across four missions.

Over the course of their mission, the Crew-6 astronauts welcomed seven visiting vehicles, including two unpiloted Cargo Dragon spacecraft, two Russian Progress supply ships, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo carrier and two piloted Crew Dragons.

They also carried out three spacewalks. Bowen an Hoburg ventured outside twice to install new roll-out solar blankets and Alneyadi joined Bowen for a third excursion to retrieve a failed antenna package and to carry out other maintenance.

"It's certainly been the experience of a lifetime, and a real honor to get to spend six months, six incredibly short-feeling months, living and working aboard this incredible orbiting outpost," Hoburg said before departing the station. "I think we got a lot done."

• International Space Station

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

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SpaceX makes history with first all-civilian spaceflight

SpaceX has made history. Again.

The spaceflight company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk launched four private  passengers into orbit Wednesday on the first mission to space with an all-civilian crew .

A reusable Falcon 9 rocket carrying Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur, Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old geoscientist, Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old aerospace data engineer, and Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant, lifted off shortly after 8 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The four-person crew will now spend three days in orbit around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s not the first time that private passengers have paid to fly in space, but the so-called Inspiration4 mission is the first expedition into orbit without any professional astronauts on board. The historic flight represents the next stage in the evolution of human spaceflight, as access to the cosmos expands beyond just governments and their space agencies.

“The door is wide open,” Isaacman said as he and his crew members reached space.

SpaceX's rocket roared into the night sky from the same launch pad as NASA's Apollo moon missions, as well as the first and last space shuttle flights. During their ascent into orbit, the crew members celebrated excitedly and flashed thumbs-up signs as they cleared each major milestone.

Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a Pennsylvania-based payment processing company, paid an unspecified amount for the three-day joyride in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. The Inspiration4 mission is part of a charity initiative to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In addition to giving $100 million to St. Jude, Isaacman donated the three other seats on the Inspiration4 flight to his crew members.

“This dream began 10 months ago,” Isaacman said Tuesday in a preflight briefing. “We set out from the start to deliver a very inspiring message, certainly what can be done up in space and the possibilities there, but also what we can accomplish here on Earth.”

The Crew Dragon spacecraft will circle the planet 15 times each day from an altitude of nearly 360 miles, higher than the current orbits of the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, according to SpaceX.

The Inspiration4 mission will resemble SpaceX’s routine flights to the International Space Station, except this time, the capsule will not dock at the orbiting lab. As such, the company added a new glass dome to the top of the spacecraft for 360-degree views.

NASA was quick to congratulate the Inspiration4 team Wednesday, tweeting that the launch "represents a significant milestone in the quest to make space for everybody."

The successful launch of the Inspiration4 mission is a key milestone for SpaceX and a boon for the burgeoning space tourism industry. Two months ago, rival billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson both launched to the edge of space in vehicles developed by their own respective aerospace companies. Though both flights over the summer were suborbital jaunts, both Bezos’ Blue Origin and Branson’s Virgin Galactic are planning to offer orbital joyrides for space tourists in the future.

These pioneering flights — for now, limited to those who can afford to spend millions of dollars on a ticket — could accelerate the expansion of private spaceflight, making trips to space more regular, and eventually more affordable.

The first space tourist, American multimillionaire Dennis Tito, launched to the International Space Station on an eight-day expedition in 2001. Tito reportedly paid $20 million to fly to the orbiting outpost aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Until now, only seven civilians, including Tito, had paid to fly in space.

Arceneaux, a bone cancer survivor now works  at St. Jude; Sembroski is a U.S. Air Force veteran; and Proctor is a licensed pilot and former NASA astronaut candidate.

Proctor secured her ticket to space through an online contest conducted by Shift4 Payments and Sembroski won his seat in a charity drive to raise money for St. Jude. 

The crew members have called their journey a “humanitarian mission,” and have spoken about how they hope to inspire people around the world. 

“I want to thank everyone for all the support, encouragement, and love,” Arceneaux tweeted Wednesday , mere hours before the launch. “And thank you to @StJude for being the reason I’m here today. This is for everyone who’s ever been through something difficult, and I know we all have. Hold onto hope because there WILL be better days.”

The Inspiration4 mission is just the start of SpaceX’s ambitions to launch paying customers into orbit. Earlier this year, the company announced that the first private space station crew, led by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, will launch to the orbiting lab in early 2022. López-Alegría will be joined by three men who are each paying $55 million to spend eight days at the space station.

In 2018, SpaceX also said Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder and CEO of the fashion retailer Zozo, would be the first private passenger to fly around the moon on a mission that is planned for sometime in 2023.

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

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SpaceX's first private flight with all-civilian crew launches into Earth's orbit

SpaceX's first private flight has blasted off with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor, in the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism.

Key points:

• The flight is SpaceX founder Elon Musk's first entry in the competition for space tourism dollars
• Unlike NASA missions, the public will not be able to listen in or watch events unfold in real-time
• One of the crew is set to become the youngest American in space and the first person in space with an implant, a titanium rod in her left leg

It is the first time a rocket streaked toward orbit with an all-civilian crew; that is, no professional astronauts .

The Dragon capsule's two men and two women are looking to spend three days circling the world from an unusually high orbit — 160 kilometres higher than the International Space Station — before splashing down off the Florida coast this weekend.

It's SpaceX founder Elon Musk's first entry in the competition for space tourism dollars.

Who's on board?

Leading the flight is Jared Isaacman, 38, who made his fortune with a payment-processing company he started in his teens.

Mr Isaacman is the third billionaire to launch this summer, following the brief space-skimming flights by Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson and Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos in July.

Joining Mr Isaacman on the trip dubbed Inspiration4 is Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood cancer survivor who works as a physician assistant where she was treated — St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Mr Isaacman has pledged $US100 million out of his own pocket to the hospital and is seeking another $US100 million in donations.

Also along for the ride are sweepstakes winners Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona.

Ms Arceneaux is set to become the youngest American in space and the first person in space with an implant, a titanium rod in her left leg.

The recycled Falcon rocket soared from the same Kennedy Space Center pad used by the company's three previous astronaut flights for NASA.

However, this time the Dragon capsule aimed for an altitude of 575 kilometres, just beyond the Hubble Space Telescope.

Their fully automated capsule has already been in orbit: It was used for SpaceX's second astronaut flight for NASA to the space station.

The only significant change is the large domed window at the top in place of the usual space station docking mechanisms.

Mr Isaacman, an accomplished pilot, persuaded SpaceX to take the Dragon capsule higher than it's ever been.

Initially reluctant because of the increased radiation exposure and other risks, SpaceX agreed after a safety review.

"Now I just wish we pushed them to go higher," Mr Isaacman told reporters on the eve of the flight.

"If we're going to go to the moon again and we're going to go to Mars and beyond, then we've got to get a little outside of our comfort zone and take the next step in that direction."

Mr Isaacman, whose Shift4 Payments company is based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is picking up the entire tab for the flight but won't say how many millions he paid.

He and others contend those big price tags will eventually lower the cost.

"Yes, today you must have, and be willing to part with, a large amount of cash to buy yourself a trip to space," said Explorers Club President Richard Garriott, a NASA astronaut's son who paid the Russians for a space station trip more than a decade ago.

"But this is the only way we can get the price down and expand access, just as it has been with other industries before it."

Crew trained for six months before liftoff

Although the capsule is automated, the four Dragon riders spent six months training for the flight to cope with any emergency.

That training included centrifuge and fighter-jet flights, launch and re-entry practice in SpaceX's capsule simulator and a gruelling trek up Washington's Mount Rainier in the snow.

Four hours before liftoff, the four emerged from SpaceX's huge rocket hangar, waving and blowing kisses to their families and company employees, before they were driven off to get into their sleek, white flight suits.

Once at the launch pad, they posed for pictures and bumped gloved fists, before taking the elevator up. Ms Proctor danced as she made her way to the hatch.

NASA now a supporter of space tourism

Unlike NASA missions, the public will not be able to listen in, let alone watch events unfold in real time.

Ms Arceneaux hopes to link up with St Jude patients, but the conversation will not be broadcast live.

SpaceX's next private trip, early next year, will see a retired NASA astronaut escorting three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a week-long visit.

Meanwhile, the Russians are launching an actress, film director and a Japanese tycoon to the space station in the next few months.

Once opposed to space tourism, NASA is now a supporter.

The shift from government astronauts to non-professionals "is just flabbergasting", said former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander.

"Some day, NASA astronauts will be the exception, not the rule," said Cornell University's Mason Peck, an engineering professor who served as NASA's chief technologist nearly a decade ago.

"But they'll likely continue to be the trailblazers the rest of us will follow."

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Historic SpaceX Falcon 9 booster topples over and is lost at sea

A piece of America’s space history is now on the ocean’s floor. During its return voyage to Port Canaveral in Central Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster toppled over and broke in half.

This particular booster, tail number B1058, was coming back from its record-breaking 19th mission when it had its fatal fall. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Dec. 23 carrying 23 Starlink satellites. The booster made a successful landing eight and a half minutes after launch on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ which was stationed east of the Bahamas. SpaceX said in a statement on social media that it succumbed to “high winds and waves.”

The company stated that “Newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue.

In a separate post, Kiko Deontchev, the Vice President of Launch for SpaceX, elaborated by added that while they “mostly outfitted” the rest of the operational Falcon booster fleet, B1058 was left as it was, “given its age.” The rocket “met its fate when it hit intense wind and waves resulting in failure of a partially secured [octo-grabber] less than 100 miles from home.”

“We came up with self-leveling legs that immediately equalize leg loads on landing after experiencing a severe tippy booster two years ago on Christmas,” Deontchev wrote, referring to the first flight of the B1069 booster.

“One thing is for sure, we will make lemonade out of lemons and learn as much as possible from historic 1058 on our path to aircraft-like operations,” he added.

An American tail(number)

Beyond its status as the flight leader in SpaceX’s Falcon fleet with 19 completed missions, B1058 also held the distinction of launching astronauts from American soil for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Former NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were the first to climb aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to fly to the International Space Station on May 30, 2020. That historic mission, dubbed Demo-2, began the illustrious mission career of B1058 that spanned more than three years.

To mark its landmark flight, the booster was emblazoned with both the official NASA logos, nicknamed the “meatball” and the “worm.” This became the first crewed flight in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which began a new chapter of the agency purchasing commercial services to shepherd astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost.

When the booster was being prepared for the Demo-2 mission, NASA and SpaceX determined the loss-of-crew (LOC) probability to be 1-in-276, beating the program-required threshold of 1-in-270.

Crew Dragon Endeavor docked with the ISS 19 hours after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

While the Demo-2 flight was the only crewed mission using B1058, the booster did support one additional mission to the Space Station when it launched a Cargo Dragon spacecraft, designated C208, on SpaceX’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission on Dec. 6, 2020.

The other 17 flights of this booster included the first and third of SpaceX’s Transporter missions, carrying an array of CubeSats and NanoSats to orbit, as well as 14 missions to send up satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation.

Gone, but not forgotten

On Tuesday, Dec. 26, the remaining portion of B1058 was brought into Port Canaveral onboard ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ A collection of photographers, reporters and on-lookers gathered along the entryway to the port to catch a glimpse of what was left of the booster.

Most of the engine section of the rocket appeared to be in tact, judging from photos and three of the four landing legs jutted into the air, propped open as they were following the booster’s landing.

Looking from the top of the booster remnants, wires were drawn out and strewn over the edge of the droneship, dragging in the water as the vessel made it back to its dock.

While B1058 will never fly again, SpaceX fully intends to preserve what’s left and understand what they can.

“We are planning to salvage the engines and do life leader inspections on the remaining hardware,” said Jon Edwards, the Vice President of Launch Vehicles and Falcon 9 Product Director at SpaceX. “There is still quite a bit of value in this booster. We will not let it go to waste.”

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Success! SpaceX Launches Falcon Heavy Rocket on Historic Maiden Voyage

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The first Falcon Heavy rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX soared on its maiden voyage today (Feb. 6) — a historic test flight that also sent a car toward Mars and included two confirmed booster landings.

Billed as the world's most powerful booster since NASA's Saturn V, the Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) — the same site used by NASA's Apollo moon missions and space shuttles — at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045GMT) after more than two hours of delays due to upper level winds.

"I'm really excited about today," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters after the launch. "I'm really proud of the SpaceX team. They've done an incredible job of creating the most advanced rocket in the world, and the biggest rocket in the world."

Standing 23 stories tall, the Falcon Heavy rocket is SpaceX's largest rocket yet. Its first stage is powered by three core boosters based on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, with 27 engines (nine per booster) firing in unison to produce about 5 million lbs. of thrust (22,819 kilonewtons) at liftoff. While SpaceX hoped all three boosters would return to Earth and land, the center core missed its mark - a minor hiccup in an otherwise successful launch, Musk said. [ SpaceX's 1st Falcon Heavy Rocket Test Flight in Pictures ]

The rocket will eventually launch payloads of up to 141,000 lbs. (64,000 kilograms) into orbit. That's about twice the payload capacity of its nearest competitor, the Delta IV Heavy , built by United Launch Alliance.

"This is a test flight,"  Musk said yesterday (Feb. 5). "If the test flight works, I think we'd be ready to put satellites on the next mission." That mission, Musk added, could occur within the next three to six months.

A car in space, and reused rockets

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy test flight was arguably one of the most anticipated rocket launches in years, with an estimated 100,000 spectators expected to visit Florida's Space Coast to witness the event. Among those in attendance was famed Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who watched as the Falcon Heavy launched from the same pad  he used to fly to the moon in 1969.

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Part of that allure is the mission's novelty: This Falcon Heavy is the first of its kind, a new breed of reusable monster rocket .

The two side boosters of the first stage have flown before. One launched the Thaicom 8 communications satellite in May 2016, and the other lofted a Dragon cargo ship for NASA in July 2016, according to SpaceX. The center core stage was completely new for the Falcon Heavy. [ SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket Explained (Infographic) ]

In a sort of cosmic dance, the three first-stage core boosters returned to Earth much like SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets have in the past. Two boosters touched down at SpaceX landing sites at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near KSC. The third was scheduled to land on SpaceX's drone-ship landing pad "Of Course I Still Love You," stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk said the core stage hit the Atlantic Ocean at about 300 mph after two of three engines did not fire during the descent. The crash damaged the nearby drone ship, he added.

SpaceX has now successfully landed Falcon-family rockets 24 times — three on this mission alone. (The rocket family is named after another famously reusable spaceship, the fictional Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars," Musk has said.)

But perhaps the biggest draw of today's launch was the Falcon Heavy's unique payload: a Tesla Roadster riding atop the rocket's second stage.

Musk announced in December that the "midnight cherry red" convertible, which he owns, would be the first Falcon Heavy payload. Then, on Monday, he revealed another surprise: a spacesuit-clad mannequin called "Starman" (a reference to David Bowie's song "Starman") in the driver's seat, with its right hand on the wheel and left arm resting on the door.

About 28 minutes into today's test flight, the second stage carrying the Roadster shut down its engine, ending the main phase of the Falcon Heavy test flight. If all goes well, the second stage will coast for 6 hours through Earth's Van Allen belts, regions of extremely high radiation, and then restart its engine to send the Roadster and Starman toward Mars.

That maneuver will send the Roadster into orbit around the sun and, in turn, eventually carry the car and Starman about 248 million miles (400 million kilometers) from Earth.

"It will essentially be an Earth-Mars cycler ," Musk said, adding that the orbit should bring the Roadster near Mars. There is an "extremely tiny" chance the car could hit the Red Planet, he added.

There are three cameras on the Roadster, Musk said, adding that they should capture "epic views" during the mission.

"I'm not worried about the car," Musk said. "It'll be fine."

A future for Falcon Heavy

When Musk first announced the Falcon Heavy in April 2011 , he predicted that its first flight could occur by 2013. But that year came and went, followed by more, as SpaceX tackled the nuances of building a reusable heavy-lift rocket. Musk estimates SpaceX invested about $500 million of its own funds to develop the new rocket.

Now, with the first test flight in the books, SpaceX is ready to forge ahead with commercial satellite launches. Two missions are scheduled for 2018: the launch of the Arabsat 6A communications satellite, and the Space Test Program 2 mission for the U.S. Air Force, which also includes a solar-sail mission for The Planetary Society.

The Falcon Heavy's raw power, combined with its reusable design, represents a giant leap forward for SpaceX.

"This would be a major milestone in heavy lift," Scott Hubbard, editor of the peer-reviewed journal New Space and an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, told Space.com before the launch . "A successful test would really advance, in my view, the potential for planning commercially acquired launch services for deep space."

SpaceX aims to sell Falcon Heavy launches for about $90 million per flight. (The single-core Falcon 9 launches sell for $62 million per flight.) By reusing the Falcon Heavy boosters, the company hopes to drastically reduce the cost of heavy-lift space missions to near that of its Falcon 9 missions.

"If we are successful in this, it is game over for all other heavy-lift rockets," Musk said.

The Falcon Heavy is part of a growing list of SpaceX launch services and ongoing projects. The company already provides satellite launch services and Dragon cargo delivery missions for NASA using its Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX is also building a crewed version of the Dragon space capsule to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, with the first flights scheduled for later this year.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is developing a launch system even larger than the Falcon Heavy , called the BFR (or Big Falcon Rocket ). That booster, Musk has said, is designed to launch hundreds of people into space at one time and could be used to transport passengers around the world quickly for point-to-point travel.

Musk said he was thinking of the BFR on Monday while visiting the Falcon Heavy at the launchpad ahead of today's launch.

"I'm looking at Falcon Heavy, and I'm thinking, 'It's a bit small,'" he said.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8 p.m. EST to include details about the Falcon Heavy core stage, which did not survive its landing attempt. The impact speed of the core booster has also been corrected to 300 mph.

Space.com senior writer Michael Wall contributed to this report from San Francisco. Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him   @tariqjmalik   and   Google+.  Follow us   @Spacedotcom ,   Facebook  and   Google+ . Original article on   Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network . To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik .

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With Moon as His Muse, Japanese Billionaire Signs Up for SpaceX Voyage

By Kenneth Chang

• Sept. 18, 2018

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — When Yusaku Maezawa took the stage here at one corner of the SpaceX factory floor, the founder of the online Japanese clothing company Zozo explained that he did not just want to be the first private citizen to circle the moon.

“I choose to go to the moon, with artists,” Mr. Maezawa said, echoing President John F. Kennedy’s speech in 1962 . He announced his intentions to travel to space with an unconventional crew during a news conference Monday evening where he shared the stage with Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder.

Mr. Musk is usually the center of attention at events like these. But he had reasons to share the spotlight with the Japanese billionaire: Mr. Maezawa had already put down a deposit for a flight aboard SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, the B.F.R.

“A very significant deposit,” Mr. Musk said.

While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets have been significant technological achievements, its engineers have started to turn their attention toward the B.F.R., a much more ambitious vehicle that Mr. Musk hopes will one day make regular trips to and from Mars, part of his vision of spreading humanity across the solar system.

Mr. Musk said B.F.R. was still a small project at SpaceX — less than 5 percent of the work, he estimated — but was one that would grow in the coming years. Mr. Maezawa’s four- to five-day moon trip would not occur until 2023 at the earliest.

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Although he would not discuss how much Mr. Maezawa is to pay for his trip, Mr. Musk made clear it would make a significant contribution to the development costs. Mr. Musk, who has experienced considerable tumult in recent months, even said that Mr. Maezawa’s willingness to give SpaceX so much money for a risky venture has “done a lot to restore my faith in humanity.”

Mr. Musk estimated development costs at roughly $5 billion. “I don’t think it’s more than 10, and I don’t think it’s less than two,” he said.

Timeline of SpaceX Missions

SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the second time on Thursday.

In an interview after the news conference, Mr. Maezawa said he had started thinking about a moon trip about five years ago. At first, he contemplated a Russian offering , marketed by the space tourism firm Space Adventures.

Later, he contacted SpaceX, which was getting closer to launching its Falcon Heavy rocket, capable of sending missions to the moon. Last year, SpaceX announced that it was in discussions with two people for an around-the-moon trip that would take place in late 2018. On Monday, Mr. Musk said that Mr. Maezawa was one of those people.

However, SpaceX decided not to undertake the expense and effort needed to ensure that the Falcon Heavy was safe enough to carry humans, and the tourist trip was deferred.

Discussions then moved to using the B.F.R. for the moon trip, even if that meant waiting five years. Mr. Maezawa said he was willing to wait longer, as long as he was still the first private person to get to the moon.

Mr. Maezawa, 42, who may be best known in the United States for his purchase in 2017 of a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $110 million , said he did not like to be alone and so he would invite five to eight artists and performers to accompany him, part of a project he called Dear Moon .

Mr. Maezawa also said that art contributed to his ultimate hope of world peace. “Art makes people smile, brings people together.”

He added that he looked forward to seeing the works of art that would be inspired by the trip and wondered what masterpieces Basquiat, who died in 1988, might have created.

When asked whether a trip around the moon was the most beneficial way to spend his fortune, Mr. Maezawa acknowledged the philanthropic efforts of other entrepreneurs, but said, through a translator, “I want to contribute to society in a different way.”

“So maybe 10 years from now, people will be laughing I paid so much, but somebody needs to make the first payment,” he added. “Otherwise, space development is not going to evolve. That’s why I think I should be the one to do this.”

Until now, only 24 people have made the quarter-million-mile journey to the moon — all NASA astronauts during the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s. The trajectory of Mr. Maezawa and his guests would be similar to the one taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968 as they swung by the moon but did not land.

Liftoff aboard the B.F.R. is still years away, on a gargantuan rocket that would offer much more spacious accommodations than the Apollo astronauts had. At the news conference, Mr. Musk described the latest iteration of the design, which eventually is to carry 100 people to Mars.

(The “B” stands for “big;” the “R” is for “rocket.” In public, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, states its full name as “Big Falcon Rocket.” Mr. Musk and the company’s news releases have remained ambiguous about what the “F” stands for.)

Mr. Musk said that the rocket would be test launched many times in the years to come, including possibly an uncrewed flight around the moon before Mr. Maezawa and the artists went aboard. “That would be wise,” Mr. Musk said.

On the stage Monday night, Mr. Musk, showered praiseful adjectives like “bravest” on Mr. Maezawa.

“This is a dangerous mission,” Mr. Musk said. “Definitely dangerous.”

Mr. Maezawa seemed unfazed by the potential dangers, saying during the interview that he trusted the SpaceX team. “Everyone around me, they are very supportive of my adventures,” he said.

He also noted that his birthday and the assassination of President Kennedy share a day — Nov. 22 — 12 years apart. “I feel destiny,” he said.

Mr. Musk, when he was asked on the stage when he would go to space, was uncertain. “He did suggest that maybe I would join on this trip,” he said. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Mr. Maezawa said. “Please.”

“Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Mr. Musk said.

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Fly Me to the Moon: K-Pop Star T.O.P and Steve Aoki Part of SpaceX Voyage

Yusaku Maezawa "dearMoon project" will take a trip around the moon next year. Other passengers include YouTuber Tim Dodd and Indian actor Dev Joshi.

By Associated Press / Billboard Staff

Associated Press / Billboard Staff

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Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Friday that K-pop star T.O.P and American DJ Steve Aoki will be among the eight people who will join him on a flyby around the moon on a SpaceX spaceship next year.

The Japanese tycoon launched plans for the lunar voyage in 2018, buying all the seats on the spaceship. He began taking applications from around the world in March 2021 for what will be his second space journey after his 12-day trip to the International Space Station on the Soyuz Russian spaceship last year.

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T.O.P.’s real name is Choi Seung-hyun. The 35-year-old started out as an underground rapper before joining Big Bang, one of the world’s top boy bands, in 2006.

T.O.P. said in a video released by the dearMoon website that he has always fantasized about space and the moon since he was a child and, “I cannot wait.”

“When I finally see the moon closer I look forward to my personal growth and returning to the earth as an artist with an inspiration,” he said.

Maezawa made the announcement on his Twitter and the dearMoon Project website on Friday, after he tweeted last week saying he held an online meeting with Elon Musk and that his “major announcement about space” was underway.

#dearMoonCrew @yousuck2020 https://t.co/xAzi6ptXu2 pic.twitter.com/6KB2qITJRY — dearMoon (@dearmoonproject) December 8, 2022

He and the others would be among the first to travel on the SpaceX vehicle. The trip is expected to take about a week. The spaceship will not make a lunar landing but is expected to come within 200 kilometers (120 miles) of the moon’s surface while circling it for three days.

The trip is expected next year, though the exact schedule has not been disclosed.

Last year, Maezawa, 47, and his producer Yozo Hirano became the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. He has not disclosed the cost for that mission, though reports said he paid $80 million.

Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. In 2019, he resigned as CEO of the e-commerce company Zozo Inc. to devote his time to space travel. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $1.9 billion.

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