THE LUNAR LEAP THAT WASN'T: A JOURNEY INTO THE STARS PUT ON HOLD

Nestled within humankind’s lofty aspirations to the stars, stories of journeys around the Moon have long been tales of dreams and rallying cries for future missions, a narrative that sees many venturing out with heads full of stars – and in this case it leaves room for an unexpected plot turn. When just last week a Japanese billionaire cancelled his private lunar mission, it’s become all the more clear just how risky – and uncertain – space exploration can be.

A VISION FOR A MOONBOUND JOURNEY

In 2018, the path began with a spectacle featuring Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire who had decided that he wanted to go to the moon. But he wanted to take a crew of artists with him. He named his mission ‘dearMoon’, and announced that he hoped to launch a crew of international citizens on a Starship (SpaceX’s huge new two-stage rocket) to circle the moon by the end of 2023.

THE CREW OF DREAMS

With the basic outline of the trip revealed in late 2022, Maezawa finally named the eight other humans who’ll be heading to the stars with him, including the US social media personality Everyday Astronaut’s Tim Dodd, the Korean idol TOP, and the producer Steve Aoki. And there’s a story behind each one of them, a vision and a dream. The bedtime story of going to the stars is going to be very special. This is going to write a new chapter of human history.

AN ODYSSEY DELAYED AND EVENTUALLY GROUNDED

This trip, which was announced with great fanfare and funding, never moved beyond fanciful renderings, before those ominous-seeming shadows started lengthening over the possibility of its reality. Expectations for the dearMoon launch, including a tentative launch date of 2023, have been pushed back several times. Each delay has been linked to SpaceX’s Starship not yet completing an orbital test flight. Then, four years on, last November, the launch, that should’ve taken place in 2023 was indefinitely postponed. Maezawa announced that the venture was being suspended, ‘because we did not reach an understanding about the agenda moving forward with the Starship’s readiness for the flight.’

The Crew's Sentiments

When Starship was suddenly cancelled, the shockwaves didn’t just echo through the offices of SpaceX and Maezawa: they bounced off the ears and hearts of the chosen crew who suddenly found themselves in a disorienting mix of incredulity and disillusionment. ‘I can’t believe SpaceX let this get so far down the road to fact,’ despaired Tim Dodd. ‘The timeline was dubious from the very beginning,’ Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam added. ‘The dates they proposed was always really optimistic.

THE BUSINESS OF SPACE EXPLORATION EVOLVES

The stars have aligned for SpaceX since that dearMoon announcement. Its attention refocused on crewed Dragon spacecraft launches and the launch of the first few prototype Starlink satellite internet constellation planes before making a bigger splash with the deal with NASA to use a version of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis programme. The shift from private space tourism to governmental partnership is just one example of how the ongoing saga of space exploration has been driven by adaptive and emergent goals.

A FORTUNE IN FLUX

While SpaceX’s valuation and success narrative steadily climb, Maezawa’s stock has done the opposite. His net worth has taken a dip from its peak when dearMoon was first announced. Still, he wet his spacey beak by plunging up to the ISS for 12 days with his entourage in 2021 – but on a Russian Soyuz capsule.

THE ENDURING SPIRIT OF THE JOURNEY

When retracing the footsteps of the dearMoon project from its origin to its brave halt, one of the recurring themes is the aspiration of the human spirit to explore and expand. The dream flew; dearMoon flew; but perhaps the realities of space dismissed Maezawa’s flight to the Moon, for now. That is, after all, how a young boy’s dreams grow in the universe.

The Essence of Journey

To go is the essence of our being human, of our sense of adventure, of our will to make the improbable possible. Tides ebb and flow, ideas rise and fall. Perhaps the cancellation of the dearMoon mission is just a small wave in the larger ocean of questing. A journey becomes a fact, but also a fiction, about layering the journey, testing the boundaries, enriching the experience. That is what dearMoon has become.