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First SpaceX Starship moon passenger teases update on #dearMoon project

The first civilian with tickets on a SpaceX Starship to the moon has a #dearMoon update on March 2.

Jackson Ryan Former Science Editor
Jackson Ryan was CNET's science editor, and a multiple award-winning one at that. Earlier, he'd been a scientist, but he realized he wasn't very happy sitting at a lab bench all day. Science writing, he realized, was the best job in the world -- it let him tell stories about space, the planet, climate change and the people working at the frontiers of human knowledge. He also owns a lot of ugly Christmas sweaters.
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Yusaku Maezawa wants to take artists to the moon.

 #dearMoon screen capture

If you're really, really rich -- or really, really lucky -- space tourism seems to be more and more within reach every day. Earlier this month, SpaceX announced it would deliver four "everyday" people to orbit before the end of 2021. And there's a more distant SpaceX project known as #dearMoon, bankrolled by Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, that aims to take artists to the moon in 2023.

The project, announced in September 2018, aims to send private citizens around the moon on a week-long return trip. It's been a long time since we've heard anything out of the endeavor. On Thursday, Maezawa posted a short tweet regarding the #dearMoon project, indicating there's a "big update" coming on Tuesday, March 2.

Maezawa has bought six to eight seats on a SpaceX Starship, the still-in-development rocket being built by Elon Musk's rocket company to get humans off-Earth. 

Starship prototypes have been undergoing explosive, rapid disassembly at the testing facility in Texas in the last few months -- that is, they've been exploding rather than landing, which isn't great for the whole space tourism thing. Still, there's plenty of time to get things right. Another prototype is expected to fly in the coming days and, perhaps, if this one nails the landing, Maezawa's March 2 update will feel a little more real.

We've reached out to Maezawa's team for more information and will update this post when we know more. You can follow his Twitter account for more, too.