Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa Heading Into Space On Wednesday

Japan’s Yusaku Maezawa is poised to become the latest billionaire to venture into outer space with a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

What Happened: According to a Space.com report, Maezawa and video producer Yozo Hirano are joining Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin in a Soyuz rocket that is scheduled to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 8 at 2:30 a.m. for a six-hour journey to the ISS.

Maezawa’s 12-day mission was organized by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures. He is scheduled to depart on Dec. 19 for a landing in Kazakhstan at 10:18 p.m. EST. Both NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos will broadcast Maezawa’s flights to and from space.

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What Happens Next: Maezawa, a musician-turned entrepreneur who founded the online fashion retailer Zozotown, is also booked for a 2023 flight around the moon on Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship vehicle.

The cost of Maezawa’s space trip was not publicly disclosed, but previous flights organized by Space Adventures reportedly involved fees between $20 million and $40 million.

Photo: Yusaku Maezawa's official space flight portrait, courtesy of his Instagram page.