A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed
to space on Wednesday and reached the
International Space Station several hours later,
the first visit by self-paying space tourists to the
orbiting outpost in more than a decade.
Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and producer
Yozo Hirano, who plans to film his mission,
blasted off for the International Space Station in
a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian
cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
The trio lifted off as scheduled at 12:38 p.m.
(0738 GMT) aboard Soyuz MS-20 from the
Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in
Kazakhstan and successfully docked at the
orbiting outpost almost six hours later.
In several more hours, the crew will be able to
open the hatches and move to the space station
from the Soyuz.
Maezawa and Hirano are scheduled to spend 12
days in space. The two are the first self-paying
tourists to visit the space station since 2009. The
price of the trip hasn’t been disclosed.
“I would like to look at the Earth from space. I
would like to experience the opportunity to feel
weightlessness,” Maezawa said during a pre-
flight news conference on Tuesday. “And I also
have a personal expectation: I’m curious how
the space will change me, how I will change
after this space flight.”
A company that organized the flight said
Maezawa compiled a list of 100 things to do
in space after asking the public for ideas. The
list includes “simple things about daily life to
maybe some other fun activities, to more serious
questions as well,” Space Adventures President
Tom Shelley said.