Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the Japanese custom-fit garment company ZOZO, has tweeted a time-lapse video of Earth captured from the International Space Station's window (ISS).
Maezawa came to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft alongside fellow Japanese citizen Yozo Hirano, a film producer who would chronicle Maezawa's 11 days on the orbiting outpost. Alexander Misurkin, a veteran cosmonaut, is also a part of the space tourism expedition.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - APRIL 23: In this handout provided by NASA, acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk watches the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the balcony of Operations Support Building II carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide onboard on April 23, 2021, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the second crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Kimbrough, McArthur, Pesquet, and Hoshide launched at 5:49 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six-month mission on board the orbital outpost.
Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa Share a Stunning Timelapse of Earth From the ISS
Maezawa, 46, posted an amazing time-lapse video on his Twitter account. The footage showed the station conducting a complete circle of Earth a few days into his once-in-a-lifetime journey.
As the station completes a whole orbit of our globe, the footage begins with gorgeous dawn and concludes with an equally beautiful sunset. People can see Earth moving by 250 miles below in the space between as the station's solar arrays shift to the ideal position for absorbing solar energy.
The ISS revolves around Earth 16 times in 24 hours, or once every 90 minutes, at a speed of roughly 17,000 mph. Maezawa's time-lapse, on the other hand, compresses a single orbit into 24 seconds, with amazing results.
Japanese Millionaire to Further Share His Experience via Social Media
The millionaire plans to record his experience on social media and engage in the station's scientific program, Spanish news site Actualidad RT said. He is also planning to do 100 activities suggested by Internet users, including launching paper airplanes and playing badminton with one of the cosmonauts.
Maezawa began his tweeting frenzy by announcing that he would be going into space in only 24 hours. He then showed the guests a picture of the Soyuz before they boarded it for their mission. He also uploaded a selfie of himself weightless on the International Space Station. "Hi from space," he tweeted.
Who is Yusaku Maezawa?
Maezawa's rise to wealth began in the 1990s with a home-based mail-order business selling CDs and records, eventually culminating in Zozotown, Japan's most successful online fashion retail platform, in 2004. According to Daily Mail, his current net worth is almost $2 million.
The entrepreneur, who plans to fly to the moon soon, hasn't revealed how much he paid for his journey to the space station. But previous clients are said to have spent $20 million to $40 million for voyages to the International Space Station.
Digital Trends said Maezawa and his colleague traveler, like ordinary astronauts, had to go through lengthy training in the six months leading up to launch, with the station's newest visitor tweeting about what appeared to be pretty unusual preparation duties on a monthly basis.
Maezawa's stay on the station is part of NASA's and its partners' expanding attempts to commercialize the ISS, allowing the missions to help fund future space exploration and research.
The ISS welcomed two Russian filmmakers in October, and SpaceX will launch a crew of three private people and a veteran NASA astronaut to the station for a 10-day visit next month.
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