Who are the celebrities on Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s SpaceX flight to the moon?
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will go for a journey around the moon on a SpaceX rocket in 2023 along with eight crew members.
While the rocket is still under development, the mission will be known as dearMoon, the billionaire announced on Thursday.
The eight celebrity crew members for the mission are from several countries ranging from India and South Korea to the US and Britain.
The celebrities include DJ and producer Steve Aoki, US YouTuber Tim Dodd, Czech artist Yemi AD, Irish and British photographers Rhiannon Adam and Karim Iliya, American filmmaker Brendan Hall, Indian actor Dev Joshi and South Korea’s K-pop musician TOP.
#dearMoonCrew @yousuck2020 https://t.co/xAzi6ptXu2 pic.twitter.com/6KB2qITJRY
— dearMoon (@dearmoonproject) December 8, 2022
There will also be two backup crew members including snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington of the US and dancer Miyu of Japan.
Here is a look at the eight main crew members:
Steve Aoki
Born in Miami, Aoki is a two-time Grammy-nominated music producer, artist, fashion designer, entrepreneur, NFT futurist and philanthropist.
His record label Dim Mak has released influential acts like The Chainsmokers and Bloody Beetroots.
He has also collaborated with artists, including BTS, Maluma, Snoop Dogg and Linkin Park among others.
He holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most Travelled Musician in a Single Calendar Year” in 2012 for playing over 250 shows per year with performances at every top festival around the world, including Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella.
Speaking about being going to the Moon, Aoki said: “Since I was a little child I was dreaming of going to the moon. It’s becoming more and more real every day. Still hard to believe but very excited and grateful for this amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To the moon!”
Tim Dodd
Dodd is a content creator, photographer, videographer and musician from the US.
He began a photography project called “Everyday Astronaut” featuring himself in a Russian high-altitude flight suit as a whimsical wanderlusting astronaut in 2013.
In 2017, he took Everyday Astronaut to YouTube.
Dodd’s mission is to “bring space down to Earth for everyday people”.
“Never in a million years did I think I would get the chance to fly around the moon, but I can’t wait to bring everyone with me,” the YouTuber said on being part of dearMoon.
TOP
TOP, whose real name is Choi Seung Hyun, is a South Korean rapper, multi-hyphenate musician, award-winning film actor and avid art collector.
He made his debut in 2007 as the lead rapper of the K-pop group BIGBANG.
While he has featured in several videos as a solo artist, he is currently preparing his first solo album.
He has also starred in several films like Into the Fire and Tazza: The Hidden Card, as well as K-dramas including I Am Sam and Iris.
“As a Korean artist, I want dearMoon to inspire the world, give people hope, and make anyone with a dream feel that anything is possible,” he said.
Yemi AD
Yemi AD is a Czech social innovator and choreographer who has choreographed and directed shows and campaigns for Apple, Google, Mercedes Benz, the VMAs, SNL and CBS.
He has been creating opportunities for disadvantaged children in Indonesia, India and Nigeria and was appointed as Czech Goodwill Ambassador by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2019.
Rhiannon Adam
Adam is a photographer and artist from Ireland.
She has been shortlisted for and won numerous awards, including the Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography and was named as one of The Photographers’ Gallery’s New Talents in 2019.
Her work has been published in international publications including Le Monde, The Telegraph, the BBC, The British Journal of Photography, Stern, Huffington Post and The New York Times.
She has also authored three books.
Karim Iliya
Iliya is a British photographer, filmmaker and whale swimming guide based in Iceland and Hawaii.
He focuses on documenting whales, birds and other threatened species in an effort to advocate for the protection of delicate ecosystems on Earth for generations to come.
He has worked in over 45 countries, won multiple awards, been published in National Geographic Magazine and BBC Earth and co-founded Kogia, a nonprofit media library and film team dedicated to ocean conservation.
Brendan Hall
Hall is a US documentary filmmaker.
He has worked as a cinematographer to documentaries on Netflix and PBS including Bill Nye: Science Guy and Red Heaven.
He has directed projects for global nonprofits and brands including National Geographic, Google, Adobe and The Nature Conservancy.
Dev Joshi
Joshi is an Indian actor and social media influencer.
He is best known for his portrayal of Indian superhero “Baalveer”.
He has been honoured by India’s president with the “Bal Shakti Puraskar“ in 2019, the highest civilian honour in the country for those under 18.
