--- title: "Billionaire Cancels Moon Tourism Trip After SpaceX Misses Deadline" description: "Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his flagship space tourism flight, citing readiness problems with SpaceX's Starship rocket." date: "2024-06-03" modified: "2024-06-03" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/billionaire-cancels-spacex-moon-trip" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "Space" - "SpaceX" tags: - "space tourism" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Billionaire Cancels Moon Tourism Trip After SpaceX Misses Deadline ![Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his flagship space tourism flight, citing readiness problems with SpaceX's Starship rocket.]() *\Image: Pavel Pavlov / Anadolu Agency via Getty\* ## Diva Down Billionaire fashion entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his much-buzzed-about space tourism flight, citing readiness problems with SpaceX's Starship rocket. First [announced in 2018](), the tourism voyage, dubbed "dearMoon," planned to carry Maezawa and ten other space tourists — a group that notably included [DJ Steve Aoki]() — around the Moon and back to Earth. Should the trip have come to pass, it would have been the first private circumlunar trip in history. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk [said]() of the mission in a 2021 promotional clip that "we expect people will go further than any human has ever gone from planet Earth." But pass it did not. Over the weekend, the official dearMoon account on X-formerly-Twitter released a statement announcing the "[unfortunate]()" decision to cancel the trip. Meanwhile, from his personal account on the same platform, Maezawa placed the blame squarely on SpaceX and Musk's shoulders. "I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023," [wrote]() the Japanese billionaire. "It's a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch." "I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time," he continued in the thread, and "I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen." ## Par for the Course This wouldn't be the first time Muskian project timelines didn't pan out. For years now, SpaceX's many attempted Starship launches have ended in a series of [delays](), [pushbacks](), [bridge crashes](), and [explosions](); other SpaceX projects, [including its first crewed Dragon mission](), have been known to experience similar slowdowns. And it isn't just a SpaceX problem. Tesla, another Musk-helmed venture, is notorious for [unfulfilled promises]() and [extensive timeline delays](). A [particularly salient example]() can be seen in Musk's recently re-upped — though still very vague — promise that the long-awaited Tesla Robotaxi would finally be revealed in August of this year. Previously, in 2019, Musk [claimed]() that there would be "one million" Robotaxis on the road by "2020." So! This all in mind: as [*Payload* points out](), other ventures banking on the success of Starship might view the dearMoon cancellation as a tentative canary in the coal mine. Perhaps most pressingly, NASA's upcoming [Artemis III]() mission — humanity's return to the surface of the Moon for the first time in over 50 years — currently hinges on Starship being up and running by 2026. For a rocket that's yet to launch without [exploding](), that's a tall order. Anyway. Condolences are with Maezawa and his fellow space enthusiasts, as it's unclear whether there was a refund policy. **More on billionaires and space:** [*NASA Experts Concerned Billionaire Space Tourist Will Accidentally Break Hubble Space Telescope While Trying to Fix It*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()