*By Carlo Versano*
The first civilian to see the moon up close will be Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire and art collector who will pay an untold fortune for a ride around the moon on SpaceX's BFR rocket. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of the private space company, announced Maezawa as the maiden passenger on a trip that is tentatively scheduled for 2023.
But the mission is not exactly green-lit, science writer Shannon Stirone said.
"They have to prove BFR can actually leave Earth in the first place," she said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
Musk is known for his aggressive timelines ー at both SpaceX and Tesla ー and freely admitted during the livestreamed event Monday night that his process is fluid.
SpaceX, which Musk said put $2 billion to $10 billion into developing this project ー plans test flights around the moon for 2020. That is probably wishful thinking, Stirone said, though she thinks "eventually it will happen."
Stirone estimates the cost of the ticket for Maezawa's non-astronaut voyage (a major first in the field) would be "at least $80 million" and he likely put down "tens of millions" as a deposit. The company will pay the remaining balance.
For Maezawa, who founded the Japanese clothing company Zozo, it's like buying a plane ticket.
He is most famous for [unmasking](https://twitter.com/yousuck2020/status/920884081881001984) himself last year as the buyer of a 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, for which he paid $110 million.
Maezawa said that he hopes to bring artists along with him to describe the moon to those who don't have the means, or desire, to take the arduous five-day journey.
SpaceX's announcement arrives as Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin makes less splashy strides toward its goal of sub-orbital space tourism. The far less complicated trip with a relatively cheaper price of a couple hundred-grand would allow people to "skim the stratosphere" and feel weightless for a few minutes before coming home, Stirone said.
Musk's goal with the BFR is somewhat more tangled ー its ultimate function will be to ferry 100 passengers at a time to and from Mars.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/spacexs-first-tourist-twitters-new-old-timeline-kanyes-new-album-and-more).
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
