Space Adventures, Inc., the world’s leading space experiences company, announced the Russian Soyuz MS-20 carrying Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, successfully landed in Kazakhstan following their spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). The duo’s journey lasted a total of 12 days under the command of Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

“Once you are in space, you realize how much it is worth it by having this amazing experience,” Mr. Maezawa told the Associated Press during his trip. “And I believe that this amazing experience will lead to something else.”

From documenting everyday tasks such as brushing his teeth in space to sharing more personal reflections like the emotional moments of reading a favorite comic about space while in space, Mr. Maezawa continuously shared his experiences with his fans via his YouTube channel. As part of this mission, Mr. Maezawa crowdsourced ideas for things to do in space prior to his launch as part of his ‘100 Things You Want MZ To Do in Space’ campaign.

Mr. Maezawa will continue his ambition to spread awareness and interest in space travel to the public by acting as the host of the ‘dearMoon’ mission – a circumlunar flight onboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft currently scheduled to launch in 2023 – along with eight other passengers he invited.

Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, Inc., said, “The completion of MZ’s spaceflight marks not only a milestone for him and Space Adventures but for the commercial spaceflight industry as a whole and humanity’s future in space. MZ’s mission comes at the tail end of a year that saw an incredible boom in space tourism and is set to usher in another wave of exploration.”

Space Adventures has been cooperating with Roscosmos since the world’s first space tourist flight in 2001. The successful completion of Mr. Maezawa and Mr. Hirano’s mission makes them the eighth and ninth private astronauts to have visited the space station with Space Adventures and the private first spaceflight participants from Japan.

About Yusaku Maezawa

Yusaku Maezawa, CEO of Start Today, Ltd., is a Japanese e-commerce entrepreneur and world-renowned art collector. He founded ZOZO, Ltd., a publicly traded online retail clothing business, which he sold to Yahoo! Japan in 2019. Along with the Soyuz MS-20 mission to the ISS, he also plans to participate in a circumlunar mission onboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft currently scheduled to launch in 2023.

About Yozo Hirano

Yozo Hirano joined ZOZO, Ltd. after graduating from university where he became the casting director of the photography team. Currently, he is working at SPACETODAY as a film producer. On the ISS, Mr. Hirano was responsible for documenting Mr. Maezawa’s mission.

About Space Adventures

Space Adventures organized the flights for the world’s first private astronauts (Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott and Guy Laliberté) and today offers a variety of spaceflight missions to low-Earth orbit, the International Space Station, and beyond.

The post Space Adventures’ Clients, Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, Return From The ISS first appeared on Space Adventures.

Japanese entrepreneur and production assistant begin 12-day journey of a lifetime

Space Adventures, Inc., the world’s leading space experiences company, announced that Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, successfully launched on the Russian Soyuz MS-20 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome today beginning their 12-day journey in space under the command of Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

In preparation for his flight to the International Space Station (ISS), Mr. Maezawa and his crew completed approximately three months of spaceflight training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Shun Osigo also completed spaceflight training as a back-up crew member.

Furthering his intent to engage the world in the wonders of life in space, Mr. Maezawa crowdsourced ideas from the public for his ‘100 Things You Want MZ To Do in Space’ campaign – from flying paper airplanes to playing badminton with a cosmonaut – which he will share on his YouTube channel throughout his mission.

Along with his current mission arranged by Space Adventures, he will also be the host of the ‘dearMoon’ mission – a circumlunar flight onboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft currently scheduled to launch in 2023.

“During my spaceflight training, I’ve been eagerly looking forward to answering questions about life in space. As I prepare to launch, I am excited to share every aspect of my journey with everyone on Earth,” said Mr. Maezawa prior to launch. “I also see this trip as an opportunity to ready myself to be the best host possible when I, and eight talented crewmates from around the world, embark on the first civilian mission around the moon in 2023.”

Eric Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Space Adventures, Inc. said, “It’s been a year of incredible progress for commercial spaceflight. Today, we celebrate the launch of MZ, as well as Yozo, which marks Space Adventures’ first mission carrying two private citizens.”

“Space Adventures arranged the first private spaceflight in history for Dennis Tito in 2001. Now in the 20th anniversary year, Tito’s and Space Adventures’ cooperation to realize the first space tourist mission has paved the way for all space tourists since then, and to come. This year alone, the industry has seen numerous flights to space lasting a few minutes, a few days, or in MZ’s case, nearly two weeks. Humanity is opening up space for all, and its clear private spaceflight has a key role to play. We’re honored to be a part of this journey and to continue to expand the future of spaceflight,” Mr. Anderson concluded.

Space Adventures has been cooperating with Roscosmos since the world’s first space tourist flight in 2001. The successful launch of Mr. Maezawa and Mr. Hirano’s flight makes them the eighth and ninth private astronauts to have visited the space station and the first private spaceflight participants from Japan.

About Yusaku Maezawa
Yusaku Maezawa, CEO of Start Today, Ltd., is a Japanese e-commerce entrepreneur and world-renowned art collector. He founded ZOZO, Ltd., a publicly traded online retail clothing business, which he sold to Yahoo! Japan in 2019. Along with the Soyuz MS-20 mission to the ISS, he also plans to participate in a circumlunar mission onboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft currently scheduled to launch in 2023.

About Yozo Hirano
Yozo Hirano joined ZOZO, Ltd. after graduating from university where he became the casting director of the photography team. Currently, he is working at SPACETODAY as a film producer. On the ISS, Mr. Hirano will be responsible for documenting Mr. Maezawa’s mission.

About Space Adventures
Space Adventures organized the flights for the world’s first private astronauts (Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott and Guy Laliberté) and today offers a variety of spaceflight missions to low-Earth orbit, the International Space Station, and beyond.

The post Space Adventures’ Clients, Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, Launch to ISS first appeared on Space Adventures.

International research collaboration designed to increase understanding of human adaptation to spaceflight

Space Adventures, Inc. and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine announced today that human health and performance research will be a part of Yusaku Maezawa’s spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) launching December 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The research, designed to increase the understanding of the impact of spaceflight on the human body, will be conducted by Yozo Hirano, a Japanese citizen, who will be accompanying Maezawa on his flight. Important biomedical data will be collected before launch and upon Hirano’s return to Earth.

“I am excited to participate in this research as it will help scientists reduce health risks for future space explorers,” said Yozo Hirano, spaceflight participant.

“We thank Yozo for his participation in the TRISH research. Private spaceflight participants have an important role in space medicine as they often have a different health profile to professional astronauts. Our work in partnership with space medicine experts is enabling people with mild health conditions to launch to space thereby improving our collective knowledge of how the body reacts to gravitational forces and weightlessness,” said Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures.

About the Mission:
Yozo Hirano will be joining Yusaku Maezawa on his journey to the ISS, arranged by Space Adventures and in partnership with Roscosmos. Hirano will be documenting Maezawa’s experience during the 12 day-long mission. The Japanese spaceflight participants are scheduled to launch on the Soyuz MS-20 commanded by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 8, 2021. Their experience in space will be shared on Maezawa’s YouTube channel.

Increasing human health and performance research on commercial spaceflight is the goal of TRISH’s EXPAND (Enhancing eXploration Platforms and ANalog Definition) program, which collects pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight health data and stores it in a centralized research database built by TrialX, which customized its existing software for space health research. Working with commercial spaceflight providers and its spaceflight participants and crew affords new opportunities to study the health and performance of space explorers, according to the NASA-funded research institute.

“The importance of having Mr. Hirano’s participation in the research for this mission cannot be overstated,” said Dorit Donoviel, TRISH executive director and professor of space medicine at Baylor. “The work we are doing to study the impact the human body faces in space will help future space explorers safely travel beyond Earth. TRISH is grateful for Mr. Hirano’s participation in this research to further human space exploration.”

Space Adventures and TRISH aim to broaden access to space biomedical research data. Anonymized data will be made accessible to researchers through an open data repository funded and overseen by TRISH at Baylor College of Medicine. Empowered by NASA’s Human Research Program, TRISH is a virtual institute that finds and funds disruptive and innovative science and medical technologies in order to reduce health and performance risks that space explorers face.

About the TRISH-sponsored research:
Before launch and after landing, the biomedical research aims include:
– Collection of research-grade ECG activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation.
– Performance of a series of tests in the cognition testing battery designed to assess changes in behavioral and cognitive performance. The cognitive test battery is used by astronauts in NASA-funded behavioral health research studies and is administered with the Joggle Research app (Pulsar Informatics Inc.) on an Apple iPad.
– Use of balance and perception tests pre-flight and post-flight to measure sensorimotor adaptation during changes of gravity. These tests are currently performed by U.S. astronauts before and after spaceflight; and
– Use of PlenOptika’s portable auto-refractor QuickSee device pre-flight and post-flight to collect relevant vision data pertaining to sight, yielding a high-value data set for future vision research in space.

About Space Adventures
Space Adventures organized the flights for the world’s first private astronauts and today offers a variety of space missions to low-earth orbit, the ISS and beyond. Space Adventures wants as many people to experience what it is like to live in space, to circle the Earth, or to travel beyond Earth orbit. In the next 10 years, Space Adventures clients will have a choice as to what vehicle to fly to space on, and will be able to choose from multiple different destinations.

About the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH)
Led by Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Space Medicine, TRISH is a consortium that includes partners Caltech and MIT. NASA recently awarded the institute a six-year extension to further its work by delivering disruptive solutions to mitigate biomedical risks for human exploration while advancing terrestrial health technologies. Learn more about TRISH at bcm.edu/spacehealth and follow the Institute on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@BCMSpaceHealth).

About Yozo Hirano

Yozo Hirano joined ZOZO, Ltd. after graduating from university where he became the casting director of the photography team. Currently, he is working at SPACETODAY as a film producer. On the ISS, Mr. Hirano will be responsible for documenting Mr. Maezawa’s mission.

The post Space Adventures’ Client to Participate in TRISH Research first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more here.

The post Anousheh Ansari: A Woman Has Paid Her Own Way Into Space, Too first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more.

The post Space Tourism: Then and Now first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more.

The post Japanese billionaire gets ready for December space mission first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more.

The post Japanese billionaire Maezawa trains in Russia ahead of space trip first appeared on Space Adventures.

The US-based company Space Adventures and Russia are counting down to December when they are set to send Japanese online retail tycoon Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station (ISS) amid a flurry of non-professional launches.

Read more.

The post US firm sees ‘exciting’ moment as space tourism booms first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more.

The post America’s Only Second-Generation Astronaut Was Told He’d Never Go to Space. He Made It Anyway. first appeared on Space Adventures.

Read more.

The post First space tourist: I was euphoric the whole time first appeared on Space Adventures.