page_title: DearMoon project
hierarchical_section_title: DearMoon project
caption_attribution_description: English: The BFR spaceship (2018 version) firing all of its engines while over the Moon. Vehicle was subsequently renamed by SpaceX as Starship in late 2018, and then a substantial redesign to the external control surfaces was done in Sep 2019 for the first "as built" version
context_page_description: The #dearMoon project is a lunar tourism mission and art project conceived and financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. It will make use of a SpaceX Starship on a private spaceflight flying a single circumlunar trajectory around the Moon. The passengers will be Maezawa, several artists, and one or two crew members. The project was unveiled in September 2018 and the flight is expected to occur no earlier than 2023.
  The project objective is to have six to eight accomplished artists travel with Maezawa for free around the Moon on a six-day tour. Maezawa expects the experience of space tourism will inspire the accompanying artists in the creation of new art. The art would be exhibited some time after returning to Earth to help promote peace across the world.
  Maezawa had previously contracted in 2017 with SpaceX for a lunar flyby in a much smaller Dragon 2 spacecraft launched by a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle which would have carried only two passengers. According to a SpaceX announcement in early 2018, the Falcon Heavy plan was shelved in light of the development of Starship.
  As of 2020, Starship is in development.
context_section_description: The #dearMoon project is a lunar tourism mission and art project conceived and financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. It will make use of a SpaceX Starship on a private spaceflight flying a single circumlunar trajectory around the Moon. The passengers will be Maezawa, several artists, and one or two crew members. The project was unveiled in September 2018 and the flight is expected to occur no earlier than 2023.
  The project objective is to have six to eight accomplished artists travel with Maezawa for free around the Moon on a six-day tour. Maezawa expects the experience of space tourism will inspire the accompanying artists in the creation of new art. The art would be exhibited some time after returning to Earth to help promote peace across the world.
  Maezawa had previously contracted in 2017 with SpaceX for a lunar flyby in a much smaller Dragon 2 spacecraft launched by a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle which would have carried only two passengers. According to a SpaceX announcement in early 2018, the Falcon Heavy plan was shelved in light of the development of Starship. 
  As of 2020, Starship is in development. The crewed flight will not take place until after Starship is thoroughly tested and after an uncrewed circumlunar test flight.
caption: Artistic rendition of the Starship firing all 7 of its engines while passing by the Moon
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3840", "Image ImageLength": "2160", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:09:10 20:05:26", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2165", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3840", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2160"}