Who is Yusaku Maezawa? Meet SpaceX’s first space tourist to fly around the moon

Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire will be the first-ever private commercial space trip tourist aboard the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket. The rare SpaceX mission is set for take-off in 2023. The Big Falcon Rocket was first announced in 2016 and was touted as the most powerful rocket in history, even more potent than the Saturn V Moon rocket that launched the Apollo missions five decades ago.

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Earlier, US engineer and multimillionaire Dennis Tito, who was the first non-astronaut to travel to the space, paid USD 20 million to spend eight days on the International Space Station in April 2001.

Who is Yusaku Maezawa?

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1. Maezawa is the 18^th richest person of Japan. He is estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of USD 3.6 billion.
2. Maezawa, is the chief executive of Start Today, which he founded in 1998 as a CD sales business when he was still in his 20’s. After six years of launching the brand, Start Today was listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
3. Yusaku Maezawa founded Japan's largest online fashion mall, Zozotown.
4. Maezawa is an art lover. In 2016 he purchased paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Pablo Picasso, spending about USD 80 million. At the same 2016 auction, Maezawa bought pieces by Bruce Nauman, Alexander Calder, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons, spending a total of USD 98 million over two days.
5. He is planning to build his own museum in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

Yusaku Maezawa is planning to take artists along with him to the moon. "Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon. I choose to go to the moon with artists. In 2023, as the host, I would like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the Moon. They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us." Maezawa said.