First Starship Passenger Makes New Plans While Waiting for Musk

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Yusaku Maezawa with Elon Musk at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, in 2018.Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

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By Nicholas Takahashi

November 13, 2023 at 10:01 AM UTC

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As Elon Musk prepares to test his Starship rocket for the first time since an April takeoff ended in flames, the Japanese billionaire tapped to lead its debut passenger flight is looking at other space companies.

Yusaku Maezawa, founder of online clothing retailer Zozo Inc., hoped to travel around the moon this year aboard Starship with a hand-picked group of singers, painters and other pop-culture artists.