Steve Aoki on crew for first civilian flight to the Moon

Steve Aoki will be part of the crew for the first ever civilian space mission to the Moon.

The week-long mission will take place next year, with a final crew of eight flying to the moon on a rocket developed by Elon Musk‘s company SpaceX.

• READ MORE: Steve Aoki on collaborating with BTS and the appeal of K-Pop 

The mission is part of the dearMoon Project, a lunar tourism and art project created and financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. He bought all the seats in the rocket in 2018 for the purpose of giving them to “as many talented individuals as possible” [via Mixmag].

“Since I was a little child I was dreaming of going to the Moon. It’s becoming more and more real every day,” Aoki said in response to the news. “Still hard to believe but very excited and grateful for this amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To the Moon!”

Over a million people applied to be part of the project. K-pop star T.O.P will also be on the mission, becoming the first South Korean civilian to ever visit the Moon. Joining them will be filmmaker Brendan Hall, YouTuber Tim Dodd (who runs the channel EverydayAstronaut), photographer Karim Illiya, actor Dev Joshi, artist Yemi AD and photographer Rhiannon Adam.

Speaking about the project, Maezawa said: “I’m very thrilled to have these amazing people join me on my journey to the Moon and excited to see what inspiring creations they come up with in space.”

Aoki has recently been collaborating with Taking Back Sunday, teaming up with the emo legends earlier this year for a new single ‘Just Us Two’. Aoki then went on to remix their 2002 hit ‘Cute Without The E’.

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