In this iteration at least, it is at. . . an end. The Japanese billionaire had expected to have made his ride around the Moon before the end of 2023, back in 2018 when he signed on. But the crewed mission to circle the Moon that way is still perhaps three years off, and wildly over-budget. So, either Musk will fund it alone, or it will need to find new partners. The guy no longer wants the ride, after doing over ten days at ISS (having arrived aboard a Soyuz launched ride, round trip). He's scratched his. . . itch. Here's that, from Ars Technica:
. . .In the meantime, Maezawa's priorities also likely changed. According to Forbes, when the plan was announced in 2018, the entrepreneur had a net worth of about $3 billion. Today he is estimated to be worth only half of that. Additionally, he scratched his itch to go to space in 2021, flying aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle for a 12-day trip to the International Space Station.
The writing has been on the wall for a while about Maezawa, since SpaceX founder Elon Musk unfollowed the Japanese entrepreneur on X earlier this year. . . . It is probable that the combination of developmental delays and Maezawa's personal fortunes led the parties to disband the project.
This all leaves a clearer road ahead for Starship: Become operational, start flying Starlink satellites, and begin ticking off the technical challenges for Artemis. Then, several years from now, the company will turn its attention toward the challenging prospect of launching humans inside Starship from Earth, and then landing back on the planet. The first of these people will be another billionaire, Jared Isaacman, who has already flown on Crew Dragon and plans at least two more such flights before the pioneering Starship mission. . . .
Now you know. Space is hard, even before billionaires' egos get involved. Onward.
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