Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Thursday he has given up on a plan to take a trip around the moon this year, due to a delay in readying the rocket.
Maezawa, the 47-year-old founder of online fashion retailer Zozo, was picked in 2018 to be the first passenger aboard Starship, a gigantic launch vehicle and spacecraft developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and announced last December the names of eight people, including a K-pop star, who would make the journey with him.
However, no one can predict for now when Starship's development will be complete, after the rocket blew up immediately after blasting off in an unmanned test-launch in April.
Maezawa said he hopes to arrange a new trip schedule in view of the future test results.
In 2021, he flew aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz and became the first Japanese civilian to stay in the International Space Station.