Japanese billionaire Maezawa 'dearMoon' mission cancels moon flyby
01/06/2024 06:15
TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku
Maezawa cancelled his "dearMoon" mission, which the project said
was to have been the first private flight around the moon, the
mission announced on Saturday.
The team had originally aimed to make the circumlunar
flight, with celebrities on board, by the end of last year but
that became "unfeasible", the mission said in a statement on its
website.
"Without clear schedule certainty in the near-term, it is
with a heavy heart that Maezawa made the unavoidable decision to
cancel the project," it said. "To all who have supported this
project and looked forward to this endeavor, we sincerely
appreciate it and apologize for this outcome."
The statement did give further details on the cause of the
cancellation.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by William Mallard)
((tetsushi.kajimoto@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-6441-1829;))