Japanese billionaire gets ready for Russian space mission in December

MOSCOW — A forthcoming flight to space by a Japanese billionaire will allow the public to have a closer look at life on board the International Space Station, the president of Space Adventures, a company that organized the flight, said Friday.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa is set to rocket to space on Dec. 8 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with producer Yozo Hirano, who will film his mission, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Tom Shelley, the president of Space Adventures, said Maezawa compiled a list of 100 things to do in space during a 12-day mission after asking the public for ideas.

“His intention is to try to share the experience of what it means to be in space with the general public,” Shelley said in an interview with the Associated Press, adding it will include “simple things about daily life to maybe some some other fun activities, to more serious questions as well.”

Maezawa has made his fortune in fashion retail, launching Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. His net worth is currently estimated at $2 billion US by Forbes magazine.

“I’m so curious: ‘What’s life like in space?’ So, I am planning to find out on my own and share with the world,” Maezawa said in a statement earlier this year.

He and his film producer will be the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. The price of the trip hasn’t been disclosed.

Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company, has previously sent seven other tourists to the space station, from 2001 to 2009.