Japanese Billionaire Maezawa Returns to Earth

(2021/12/20-20:34) Tokyo, Dec. 20 (Jiji Press)--A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa returned to Earth on Monday after he became one of the first two Japanese nonastronauts to stay at the International Space Station. The Soyuz landed on the grasslands of Kazakhstan around 12:15 p.m. Japan time (3:15 a.m. GMT). Maezawa, 46, appeared healthy as he waved both hands with a smile after getting out of the Soyuz, live footage from NASA Television showed. Maezawa, the founder of online fashion mall operator Zozo Inc. <3092>, made the space trip with Yozo Hirano, a 36-year-old executive of an affiliated company, and a Russian astronaut serving as the spacecraft's commander. They arrived at the ISS after blasting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 8. During his 12-day stay, Maezawa carried out experiments requested by the general public, appeared on radio live and posted YouTube videos. "The 12 days in space went by quickly. Well then, I'll go back home," Maezawa wrote on twitter Sunday, the day before coming back to Earth. About six hours after returning home, Maezawa tweeted that he was on "Earth now," with a picture of him eating cup ramen noodles. Maezawa and Hirano are the 13th and 14th Japanese nationals to visit space. They used a service provided by a U.S. company to made their trip. To prepare for the journey, they received training at a facility near Moscow and elsewhere from June this year. Maezawa has also been informally selected as the first passenger on a trip around the moon planned for 2023 by SpaceX. END