The Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa could barely contain his excitement before blasting off to the International Space Station, where he will host a badminton tournament in orbit.
Launching from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the online fashion tycoon and his assistant, Yozo Hirano, will be the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since Toyohiro Akiyama, a journalist, travelled to the Mir space station in 1990.
“I’m excited. I feel like an elementary school student about to go on an outing,” Maezawa, 46, told a news conference.
Hours before the morning flight he tweeted: “Good morning. It’s launch time in 9 hours. I’m going to wash my body thoroughly, disinfect my skin, wear my space underwear and flight suit, transport closer to the launch site, wear my spacesuit, head to the launchpad, and board my Soyuz [capsule].
“From now on, I won’t be able to use my iPhone, so the next tweet will be from space. Let’s Go. Dreams come true.”
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Maezawa and Hirano were waved off by family and friends clutching Japanese flags as they boarded the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
After their approximately six-hour-long journey they will dock at the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), before spending 12 days on the station.
Maezawa and Hirano plan to document their daily life on the ISS on Maezawa’s popular YouTube channel. The tycoon has set out 100 tasks to complete on board the station, including hosting a badminton contest.
Maezawa is a household name in Japan thanks to his penchant for private jets and supercars, cash giveaways to Twitter followers, and celebrity girlfriends.
He has shared video of his intense training for the trip, including sitting in a chair rotating at speed, which he described as “unusual training in Russia”.
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Despite his enthusiasm for the trip, Maezawa said he had struggled to learn Russian to communicate with his trainers, and admitted he was looking forward to eating sushi on his return to Earth.
He also plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the Moon operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. His fellow billionaires Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, busting into a market Russia is keen to defend.
