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After seven years since its announcement, SpaceX's first planned private mission to the Moon funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has been canceled, the billionaire announced on his social media account early morning today. Maezawa and a crew of three had planned to take a trip around the Moon on the Starship rocket. However, delays with the program have led the billionaire to change his mind. He shared on X that the lack of finality of a launch date was hindering him from moving forward with his life.
Japanese Billionaire Cancels Starship Moon Mission, Citing Uncertainty About Launch Date
Maezawa was initially planned to fly to the Moon on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket and through using the Dragon spacecraft. However, SpaceX shifted him to Starship after it stopped development on a variant of the Dragon spacecraft for crewed lunar missions and it decided to halt the Falcon Heavy's human certification.
The billionaire announced his crew for the dearMoon mission in 2022, at a time when SpaceX had not flown a single Starship Super Heavy booster. The crew included artists from the U.S. and abroad, with a backup crew also ready to take their role in case of cancelations.
Now, Maezawa and the dearMoon team have confirmed on X that they will not be taking to the skies. SpaceX is due to launch its fourth Starship test rocket later this week, and before SpaceX's second Starship test in late 2023, the dearMoon team had shared that it was excited about the second test since it would allow it to develop a timeline for the mission.
Maezawa had also shared his thoughts on the matter back then, highlighting that while he had initially expected the mission to take place in 2023, it appeared that "it will take a little longer." Since then, there have been no official updates on the dearMoon updates before today's announcement.
While the dearMoon team's social media announcement was relatively muted as it simply described the cancellation as "unfortunate," Maezawa was more forthcoming in his statement. A machine translated variant reads as follows:
Regarding the cancellation of dearMoon. When I signed the contract in 2018, I was supposed to fly to the moon by the end of 2023. I can't help that it didn't happen, but even now there is no prospect of when I will be able to fly. If it continues like this, I won't be able to make my own life plans, and I would be sorry to keep the crew I invited waiting any longer, so after much deliberation, I have decided to cancel at this timing. I am truly sorry to those who were looking forward to it.
A press release on the project's website shared that the launch was scheduled for late 2023, and "without clear schedule
certainty in the near-term" Maezawa was unable to proceed with the mission. The team still holds "deep respect" for SpaceX and will move on to the next challenge.
Neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk have commented on the cancellation so far which came at little after midnight Eastern Time today. SpaceX has had busy May that saw it launch 14 rockets in one month for the first time in its history and reduce the turnaround time for its drone ships.
Starship's test campaign this year and in 2025 will see the rocket focus on validating technologies for NASA's Artemis program. The second stage Starship will serve as NASA's lander of choice for Moon missions, and it aims to become the first ship to take humans to the Moon since the Apollo program.
Added details of cancelation notice, corrected the announcement time at 7:35:19 ET June 1st, 2024
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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