The first聽private voyage of SpaceX鈥檚 planned BFR rocket will be the ultimate artist鈥檚 retreat. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on 17 September that Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire and art curator who founded Japan鈥檚 largest online clothing retailer, will be the first passenger on the enormous rocket, and he鈥檚 planning on making the voyage around the moon .
鈥淚 would like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the moon,鈥� Maezawa said. 鈥淭hese artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth, and these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us.鈥�
He also invited Musk to join in on the journey around the moon and back, to which Musk said 鈥淢aybe I would join on this trip, I don鈥檛 know.鈥�
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The BFR spaceship that sits atop the actual rocket is planned to fit about 100 people, but this flight will run on a much smaller crew to leave room for extra fuel and supplies just in case anything goes wrong, Musk said.
Optimistic timeline
The flight is planned for 2023, but Musk is known for setting overly-optimistic timelines. 鈥淭ake the timeline with a grain of salt,鈥� says Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. 鈥淚t may not happen, or it may not happen for a long time.鈥�
Musk declined to reveal how much Maezawa paid for all of the seats on the BFR, but he did say it was enough to 鈥渉ave a material effect on paying for cost and development of BFR.鈥� He also said that the total development costs of the rocket will be about $5 billion.
In February 2017, SpaceX announced that it would send two passengers around the moon in the Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2018, but those plans never materialised. Musk revealed during the announcement of this new flight that Maezawa was one of the original passengers, but it鈥檚 not clear what happened to the other. At the time, Musk said that one or two private trips a year could provide 10 to 12 per cent of SpaceX鈥檚 annual revenue.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of funding his longer-term ambition,鈥� says Harrison. 鈥淚f he can get billionaires that want to do it for the thrill, it allows him to build these spacecraft and test them to build towards his vision of going to Mars.鈥�
But just like the launch of 聽a red Tesla aboard the first flight of the Falcon Heavy in February, these pleasure cruises may be more style than substance. It鈥檚 a marketing strategy similar to those of more Earth-bound luxury brands, says Laura Grego at the Union of Concerned 杏吧原创s in Massachusetts.
鈥淭he real profit centre for fashion designers is not the clothes that they walk the runway with. They create a brand persona that way, and what they really make their money in is handbags and perfumes,鈥� she says.
This flight has higher stakes than a fashion show, though 鈥� pulling it off would give SpaceX a major reputation boost, but if anything went bad it could be disastrous.
鈥淚t would be astonishingly bad if something went wrong, not just for SpaceX but for the space tourism industry, which is just in its infancy,鈥� says Harrison. 鈥淚t would scare people off, and if there鈥檚 an accident it will attract much more government oversight and regulation.鈥�
