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dearMoon crew announced for lunar Starship mission, whenever it may happen

Over the weekend, we finally got word of who will fly on the mysterious dearMoon mission paid for by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. The crew is filled with artists from all mediums and even a media member. Check out who will be flying on dearMoon below.

List of dearMoon crew members

  • Yusaka Maezawa (Crew Leader)
  • Steve Aoki (D.J. / Producer)
  • Choi Seung Hyun, “TOP” (Musician)
  • Yemi A.D. (Multi-Discipline Creative)
  • Rhiannon Adam (Photographer)
  • Tim Dodd “Everyday Astronaut” (YouTuber / Media)
  • Karim Iliya (Photographer)
  • Brendan Hall (Filmmaker)
  • Dev D. Joshi (Actor)

Backup Crew

  • Kaitlyn Farrington (Snowboarder)
  • Miyu (Dancer)

The most creative crew to fly to space

A goal of Maezawa’s (M.Z.) mission to space was to bring creatives with him rather than professional astronauts or engineers. While some argue that this is a waste of a scientific opportunity, others say this could bring a new era of motivation and curiosity toward space with artists on a flight around the Moon. No matter what your view is, I think we can all agree it’s pretty crazy this sort of mission is even possible.

We recently celebrated 50 years since the launch of Apollo 17 (the final crewed lunar landing), and to think we have already come to an era of commercial spaceflight to the Moon is crazy. While many of us wanted to be on Mars by now, we’ve come a long way since the days of racing the Soviet Union to the Moon. We now have a thriving commercial sector that is possibly doing things only governments could do just a few decades ago.

When will dearMoon fly on Starship?

This is the million-dollar question because it could be a while. When dearMoon was announced (an entire Starship redesign ago), the date was 2023. In case you haven’t checked your calendars recently, that’s coming up pretty soon, and we’re still waiting on the first orbital test flight. According to Ars Technica, that might take place in the first quarter of 2023. Then the first crewed flight has already been spoken for with the Polaris Program. No date has been given as to when that flight will take place, but there will be two Crew Dragon flights in part of Polaris before they step foot on Starship.

So, this could be a bit, and by a bit, I mean a while, and by a while, I mean several years if not more. 2023 is definitely off the table, and I think 2024 is as well when you consider Polaris is supposed to be first, and we have some time before their Dragon flights take place. So while this announcement is and should bring excitement for those that follow these crew members, be patient as the rocket dearMoon is flying on still hasn’t even finished development yet.

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Avatar for Seth Kurkowski Seth Kurkowski

Seth Kurkowski covers launches and general space news for Space Explored. He has been following launches from Florida since 2018.