Japanese billionaire Maezawa announces SpaceX moon trip's crew, includes K-pop star TOP, DJ Steve Aoki

The billionaire has purchased every seat on the maiden lunar voyage. He first announced the project, dearMoon, in 2018 when he had planned to invite a selective crew of six-to-eight artists. However, he later made entry into the list of crew members possible through a competition in which those willing to participate needed to fill out an online application. 

The business tycoon, along with his crew, will become  SpaceX flyby's first passengers to travel to the moon on its commercial space flight, ushering in a new era of space travel for rich clients. SpaceX's Starship vehicle will take eight days to return to earth after its launch, which will include circling the moon for three days and flying 200 kilometres from the surface of the moon.

Among the eight-crew members, K-pop star Choi Seung Hyun, known by the stage name TOP, and  DJ Aoki, who is the founder of the Benihana restaurant chain, became the top two higher-profile members to board the space flight. After the announcement, TOP posted a video in which he said, "I feel great pride and responsibility in becoming the first Korean civilian going to the moon."

The other six crew members selected for the "dearMoon" voyage are Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam,  American YouTuber Tim Dodd, American filmmaker Brendan Hall, Czech artist Yemi AD, Indian actor Dev Joshi and British photographer Karim Iliya. Japanese dancer Miyu and US Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington are backup crew members, as per the announcement.

The bussinessman took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to announce the selection of eight crew members who will accompany him on the trip to moon, stating that he had received applications from a million people. Giving an update on the lunar expedition on Monday, Maezawa had tweeted about holding a meeting with Elon Musk and preparing for "big announcement about space."