Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced today that South Korean kei pop star T.O.R.

and Japanese-American DJ Steve Aoki will be among the eight crew members he plans to take on a trip around the moon next year, world news agencies reported.

On Monday, Maezawa tweeted that he planned to make an "important announcement" related to space.

The news came after his meeting with the owner of the company "SpaceX" Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk (English: Elon Reeve Musk, /ˈiːlɒn ˈmʌsk/) is a Canadian-American engineer, inventor, Reuters reported at the time, and BTA.

Yusaku Maezawa, founder of the online fashion site Jodzo, took a tourist trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Soyuz spacecraft last December.

He plans to go around the moon next year with a rocket of Musk and his company SpaceX.

Maezawa has bought all the seats on the rocket that will travel to the moon.

The other chosen by the billionaire to participate in the lunar mission are the American YouTuber Tim Dodd, the Czech artist Yemi AD, the Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam, the British photographer Karim Ilya, the American documentarian Brendan Hall and the Indian actor Dev Yoshi.

In case someone is hampered, there are also two backups - American snowboarder Caitlin Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu.

"I hope that each of them will realize the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, traveling to the moon and coming back," the billionaire said in a short video posted on YouTube.

"All those selected will benefit greatly from this experience and I hope that they will use it to contribute to our planet, to humanity," he added.

The mission will be called "Dear Moon" and will last for six days.

SpaceX's Starship rocket, which will be used for this mission, will be the most powerful ever built.

It has already successfully performed atmospheric flights and managed to land, but has not yet performed an orbital test flight.

Musk has said several times that such a test flight will take place by the end of the year.

The Japanese billionaire amassed his wealth as the founder of online fashion company Jozo, which was purchased in 2019 by the e-commerce division of Softbank Group Corporation.

For his trip to the ISS aboard the Soyuz rocket, billionaire Maezawa paid 10 billion yen ($73 million).

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