SpaceX, founded by South African billionaire Elon Musk is expected to announce the name of the space tourist who will orbit the moon in the BFR rocket on September 17, 2018. As per reports, the cost of the flight will be $150 million, and as an initial step, only one passenger will fly around the moon.
Even though the name of the tourist who will fly around the moon is being kept under the wraps by SpaceX, a recent tweet made by Elon Musk has made many believe that the space tourist will be a Japanese billionaire.
Recently, Taylor Harris, the Minecraft YouTuber who runs the channel 'Ant Venom' asked Musk regarding the details of the passenger who will fly around the moon as a space tourist. Surprisingly, Elon Musk did not reply anything verbally, instead, he tweeted a Japanese flag.
As Elon Musk posted a Japanese flag, internet users started speculating that the first space tourist to fly around the moon could be a billionaire from the Asian country. It should be noted that there are only a few Japanese billionaires on a list published by Forbes, and interestingly, most of them are aged more than 60.
There are only less than fifteen Japanese billionaires who fall in the age suitable for space travel, and one among them is Yusaku Maezawa. Yusaku Maezawa, the 42-year-old billionaire is the founder of online fashion retail website Zozotown. As per Forbes, Maezawa is the 14th richest person in Japan with a net asset of $3.6 billion.
Another probable candidate who may fly around the moon is Kenji Kasahara. Kasahara is 42-years-old and he is the founder of social networking site Mixi. With assets worth $1.5 billion, Kasahara is a person who always tries to follow his passion, and it makes him one of the most likely candidates who will fly up in the BFR rocket.
In the meantime, a section of people has started claiming that the list could be expanded as close relatives of old billionaires will be also considered to achieve the feat as the first space tourist to fly around the moon.
