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Japanese billionaire Maezawa not afraid ahead of space trip

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"I've got a list of one hundred things I want to do on the station like play badminton,"

An incredibly boring man.

8 ( +17 / -9 )

Lifestyles of the rich and famous...

17 ( +19 / -2 )

Boooring pea brain... Next.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

I don't use the word "wastrel" enough.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Good for him. I will watch his YouTube channel.

-11 ( +5 / -16 )

"I want to tell you that dreams do come true, (...)" he said in Moscow on Thursday.

... for a select few billionaires, but likely not for most of us peasants.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

"I want to tell you that dreams do come true," he said in Moscow on Thursday. "Go for goal. Everything depends on you."

All you need to do is be a billionaire, exploit the labour of millions, and your vanity dreams of floating around in space a bit too can come true! So easy, why doesn't everyone do it.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

This whole space tourism thing is an insult to professional astronauts who spend decades studying and training and who usually start their careers as military pilots. Elon Musk has one of biggest egos of billionaires but even he hasn't gone to space. Which is kind of an oxymoron because of his Space X.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

I respect musk despite his many character flaws. Branson and Bezos are just attention seekers. Musk just garners attention because he probably has ADHD and is on the Autism spectrum and can't keep his mouth shut on Twitter. But musk's vision is bigger than Branson and Bezos and Space X has a proven track record

6 ( +7 / -1 )

SpaceX made history this year by sending the first all-civilian crew around the Earth's orbit in a mission called Inspiration4.

The U.S. company also plans in 2023 to take an all-civilian mission on a flight around the moon, funded by Maezawa who plans to be among the eight people on board.

Competition in the space tourism sector is heating up as more players emerge.

Blue Origin, the company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, completed two missions beyond the Earth's atmosphere this year.

Virgin Galatic of billionaire Richards Branson offers a similar experience of a few minutes in weightlessness before coming back to Earth.

Like comparing climbing Mt Everest to a stroll in the base of Mt Fuji

4 ( +4 / -0 )

ISS supposed to be a place for a serious research where astronauts are making series of scientific experiments. However, it seems that Russians are moving towards transforming their modules into a V.I.P. sauna with vodka and prostitutes.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

CO2 from frivolous "tourism"

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I hope he takes those rockets far beyond the moon and even deep into space. There is so much to do

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Maezawa looks a lot older than 45 in that picture.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

He is ageing pretty poorly. Really, who cares???

2 ( +5 / -3 )

LOL. If anyone's ever watched the comedy show "Silicon Valley", there's a clown of a character called Russ Hannemen who is the spitting-image equivalent of this equally-clownish real-life Maezawa.

In the show, Hanneman earned a billion dollars by "putting radio...on the internet." lol. He LOVES to boast about his wealth, does everything wasteful a billionaire "should" do (drive only luxury sports cars whose doors (“go up like this, not out like that!”); dress in tacky, uber-expensive clothes and eat at only the most overpriced places in spite of having no taste; recklessly invests his money into failing ventures like cheap cryptocurrencies, and basically spends all his time promoting and advancing himself...at the expense of everything and everyone else!)

This real-life Maezawa, who joined the “three commas” club by... “making an E-Bay for clothes...but for Japan!”; spends all his time talking...about himself, naturally, to his “followers” on social media; and buys idiotic “art” at stupidly overpriced amounts just to glorify himself (and his own museum)!

Last time I heard, Maezawa stopped hunting for a “girlfriend”, online, contest-like, to take with him into space like a pet! He now plans to go with a male lackey...to document the “historic” event, of course. (Frowny Face)

Art imitating Life? Or the other way around? lol. You choose!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

All the residents of Japan are paying for his little vacation. In a civilized society, even within the shackles of capitalist economy and class society, this guy would pay tax so the most skilled and deserving specialists could carry out useful activities in space.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

 play badminton

Won't the shuttlecock just fly eternally into space on the first hit?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I will watch his YouTube channel.

this says a lot about your life

2 ( +6 / -4 )

This guy is so boring. If he wants to be as famous as the Kardashians, he may ask Kris Jenner for advice: she'd surely help him become an interesting person.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Competition in the space tourism sector is heating up as more players emerge.

None of the "competition" have reached earth orbit or launched supply rockets to the ISS, launched satellites into orbit or HAVE A RED SPORTSCAR ORBITING THE SOLAR SYSTEM, or Starlink/Skynet and on and on. Next thing is to try to compare barely reaching the Karmon line to Inspiration4 which was 175 km higher than the ISS which is itself 299 km up.

Media is out lunch. What competition again??

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Isn't he a bankrupt billionaire?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Roscosmos was running out of money and had kept increasing the prices to NASA, making the X prize and SpaceX winning the payload prize first then the Crew Dragon second a necessity years earlier otherwise. Soyuz still have a great track record and if they were just not in Russia they'd be more successful and have more opportunities

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I just had an idea how to get rid of these types of billionaires for good. We only need to suggest them that they can avoid taxes by permanently living in space.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@Hito Bito

These characters work because they're recognisable. The disturbing thing about these real-life buffoons is that their wealth they build their bloated egos on comes from the exploitation and suffering of thousands of others.

When Jeff Bezos thanked his employees for paying for his vanity trip to space, Amazon workers surely thought that all their working on minimum wage without toilet breaks was worth it. As probably do sweatshop workers in the clothing industry when they see this guy.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

So many bitter jealous people in the comments. What happened to aspiring to other people, this generation is all about dragging people down to their low level, very sad.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Won't the shuttlecock just fly eternally into space on the first hit?

No. He will be inside the space station. It will go straight until it hits something. There is no gravity (well, at least no feeling of gravity) so the shuttlecock will go straight rather than arc down. But there is air inside the station so the shuttlecock feathers should keep it from tumbling.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

He could've donated all that money to the poor, homeless or even the orphans.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

TokyoJoeOct. 15  06:21 pm JST

So many bitter jealous people in the comments. What happened to aspiring to other people, this generation is all about dragging people down to their low level, very sad.

It's another step toward the day when mankind will not be a one-planet species anymore. What is so wrong with following your dreams or pioneering in something? Space travel can be dangerous, remember the Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia in 2003?

Not to mention, the Blu Origin rocket landed back on the rocket pad this week all by itself. That's a big step toward eliminating the need to build disposable rockets stages or fuel tanks, reducing space junk.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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