Japan billionaire Maezawa to fulfil childhood dream with space flight

Japanese entrepreneur and space flight participant Yusaku Maezawa gestures behind a glass wall during a news conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan December 7, 2021. Maezawa, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and flight participant Yozo Hirano take part in a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool

Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said he could barely contain his excitement a day ahead of blasting off to the International Space Station in a prelude to a more ambitious trip around the moon with Elon Musk's SpaceX planned in 2023. The 46-year-old fashion magnate and art collector has been training at a space centre outside Moscow in recent months before becoming the first space tourist to travel to the ISS in more than a decade.

Maezawa will travel aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, which will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, accompanied by his assistant Yozo Hirano, who will document the journey, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. Speaking from Baikonur ahead of his 12-day space journey, Maezawa said flying into space had been a childhood dream.