Japanese billionaire gets ready for December space mission

Japanese billionaire gets ready for December space mission

SeattlePI.com

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MOSCOW (AP) — A forthcoming flight to space by a Japanese billionaire will allow the public to have a closer look at life on board the orbiting outpost, the president of Space Adventures, a company that organized the flight, said Friday.

Yusaku Maezawa is set to rocket to space on Dec. 8 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with producer Yozo Hirano who will film his mission and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Tom Shelley, the president of Space Adventures, said Maezawa compiled a list of 100 things for him to do in space during a 12-day mission after asking the public for ideas.

“His intention is to try to share the experience of what it means to be in space with the general public,” Shelley said in an interview with The Associated Press, adding it will include “simple things about daily life to maybe some some other fun activities, to more serious questions as well.”

Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company, has previously worked with Russian space officials to put several private clients in orbit.

Maezawa, who has been preparing for the flight at Russian space facilities together with his crewmates, said during Thursday's news conference that he was particularly thrilled by training that imitated zero gravity in orbit.

He said that training in spacesuits for emergencies on the station was physically very strenuous but interesting.

Maezawa noted that his list of 100 things to do during his time on board the International Space Station would include playing badminton in orbit with his Russian crewmate Misurkin.

Currently on the station, Russian actor Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko are making the world’s first movie in orbit, a project the Kremlin said will help burnish the nation’s space glory.

Peresild and Shipenko rocketed to orbit in a...

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