Or at least, thats what it felt like.
I definitely had moments where I said, Am I part of a Japanese reality-TV show?
Brooklyn filmmaker Brendan Hall says, laughing, toRolling Stoneabout auditioning to go to space.
Elon Musk with Yusaka Maezawa in 2018 in Hawthorne, CaliforniaMario Tama/Getty Images
Its such a ridiculous thing to even be a part of.
It was never lost on me how crazy the opportunity was.
Yemi A.D., a Czech-Nigerian multidisciplinary creative who choreographed the ballet sequence in Kanye Wests Runaway music video.
Two of the flight-crew members would make history in their own right.
(Aoki, T.O.P, Miyu, and Joshi did not respond toRolling Stones request for interviews.
Maezawa did not respond to multiple interview requests or request for comment.
I dont know one person that wouldve rather had the mission dropped than wait, Dodd says.
THE WORLD IS IN THE MIDST of a new dawn of the space race.
Its truly science fiction, he adds.
By the mid-2040s,Musk has said he hopesto establish a million-person-strong colony on Mars.
Yet space travel is unfathomably costly.
And beyond a refundable $150,000 deposit, Bezos wont even disclose how much his ticket to space costs.
By 2004, Maezawa expanded the venture and founded Zozotown, Japans largest online fashion retailer.
Hes also gained a reputation as a serious rare-art collector.
This juncture of human inventiveness and sheer wonder, Maezawa felt, should be shared with the world.
The two sipped cheap beers as the conversation drifted into plans for the future.
Iliyas friend spoke of making the Olympic track team.
Iliyas dreams were a little less grounded.
All of the people, all of the life?
It brought him to volcanic heights, capturing images of bubbling lava.
She sent me the [dearMoon post and was] like, Heres your chance, he recalls.
Every crew member had their own personal motivation for going to space.
That was the beauty of it for me, Adam, who is queer, explains.
But once youre there, there is no law against your existence.
Choreographer Yemi A.D. dreamed of being an astronaut as a child in the Czech Republic.
I dont think Im as romantic about actual space as a lot of people are, he admits.
I really like the engineering and the technology.
Helping the world understand this unprecedented moment of the new space race was part of Dodds dearMoon pitch.
People lived through the Apollo program seeing [Cronkite].
I pitched that: Let me help share this mission.
Artists capturing the beauty of space was not unique to dearMoon.
TitledEarthriseby NASA astronaut William A. Anders, the image is wondrous.
A marble-like planet emerges, bright and vivid, from vast nothingness.
Still, the image was not taken by a renowned photographer, but a NASA astronaut.
What could they create that could help tell and preserve the story of humanity for centuries to come?
Youre going to find new innovation, new entrepreneurs, new adventurers and explorers everywhere popping up.
A million people rushed to apply when the project opened in March 2021.
Week by week, the applicant pool shrank as Maezawas team put the hopefuls through a rigorous interview process.
By the time they were brought to Houston that September, around a dozen people remained.
Still, to the participants, it all seemed surreal.
They had been chosen to be part of the historic flight crew.
I had this rush in my mind, in my forehead, in my eyes.
I was clapping and I started to dance in the room with no music, recalls Yemi A.D.
It connected who I am today and who I was as a child.
AN ELECTRIC ENERGY WAS PALPABLE in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023.
It was crazy to all of a sudden get your phone and everyones like, It exploded.
Does this change your mind?
There was another person who was taken aback by the explosion.
I almost couldnt believe the question, he says.
Ill be surprised if another Starship flight happens this year, Dodd says he told the dearMoon team member.
Shes like, shocked.
I was like, You know were not flying for years.
INITIALLY, ADAM HAD BEEN CAUTIOUSLY wary of Maezawa and his lofty promises.
I have always been hypercritical of the motivation behind [any] project, she explains.
With MZ, he felt like more of a safe bet because he seems to be into the spectacle.
I was like, OK, maybe the spectacle will always be the spectacle when it comes to space.
The group was able to meet NASA workers, astronauts and SpaceX engineers at global space stations.
The crew were given personalized dearMoon sweaters and patches.
(All but two signed.)
If Im making a public record, it needs to be protected like a public record, yeah.
That was really important to me.
In January 2020, he announceda search for a girlfriend to travel to the moon with him.
By the end of the month and after 27,000 submissions he got cold feet andabandoned the project.
His philanthropic dedication to the arts sometimes shouldnt be taken at face value.
There were other possible warning signs.
When Maezawa announced the trip in 2018,Forbesestimated his net worth hovered close to $3 billion.
His net worth stayed stagnant until dipping another $300 million in 2024.
Perhaps Maezawas stay atthe ISSquelled some of his excitement for space travel.
Musks priorities could have also shifted.
It meant that SpaceX engineers would have to pivot to prioritizing NASAs goals versus those of private citizens.
Musk also seems a bit spread thin.
Consecutive Starship launches in January and early March both ended in spectacular implosions.
In hindsight, it struck some dearMoon crew members as odd that Maezawa didnt stay for the Starship launch.
That was pretty telling, Dodd says.
He was probably pretty fed up and impatient at this point.
Then there was Musk unfollowingMaezawa on X in March 2024.
But surely it had nothing to do with dearMoons future.
I put it to the side, Iliya says.
I was like, Itll be fine.
That would be absurd.
Maezawa was calling off the entire project.
There was one side of it immediately that was devastation, loss, definitely anger.
I felt a load being lifted off my shoulders.
The safety of my life and my health was now, at least for this time, restored.
And this was another, yet unfortunate, arc in their stories.
It was really a heartbreak.
And then I was angry.
The other dearMoon participants were equally blindsided.
Some crafted heartfelt pleas to Maezawa, asking him to reconsider.
But there was no budging.
On June 1, Maezawa announced he was pulling the plug.
Although dearMoon is canceled, Maezawa and dearMoon crew members will continue to challenge themselves in their respective fields.
For the crew membersRolling Stonespoke to, it was a stinging blow.
It was like I went through a breakup, Farrington says.
I was on cloud nine and it just got taken away from me.
It was kind of a similar feeling to that, like Oh, no, whats next for me?
A heartbroken Yemi A.D.uploaded a vulnerable video to YouTube, explaining the cancellation.
Others were hit financially.
Hall says he depleted his personal savings to fund preproduction for the documentary he was making about the mission.
I was already entirely investing myself into a dream, he says.
DearMoon put a financial strain on me that Im still recovering from.
But at the same time, Id be remiss not to mention just how difficult that side has been.
That is how you create legacy, Adam says.
Its not through buying a Basquiat and speculating on it like its Bitcoin.
Its not a toy.
If you actually care about artistic production, put your money where your mouth is.
Since the cancellation, Maezawas interests seemed to have refocused on celebrity golfing tournaments and Formula 1 racing.
Most expensive ever,was the title of the YouTube video that racked up 1.3 million views.
It has once again broken the highest price in Maezawas supercar collection.
I feel everybody should have their moon shot, he says.
A total of $50,000 was given out to 10 recipients.
For the crew, the moon still is a dual reminder of promise and loss.
But for a spell after the cancellation, he could barely tilt his head upward at night.
But he laughs and says, I thought, this is ridiculous.
I cannot look at the moon and put any anger or disappointment at the moon.
Its not the moons fault.
