By Park Si-soo
SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Sankyung Today) -- South Korean pop star T.O.P is one of the eight artists who will fly around the moon on a SpaceX Starship vehicle in 2023 on the ‘dearMoon’ mission, led by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in collaboration with Elon Musk's SpaceX, an online news outlet reported Dec. 6, citing multiple sources.
While the celebrity, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, remains silent on the issue first reported by Edaily, Maezawa recently said he would make a “big announcement about space on December 9” after having an online meeting with Elon Musk.
If the report is accurate and the ‘dearMoon’ mission proceeds as planned, T.O.P will become the second South Korean to reach space, after Yi So-yeon in 2008.
Yusaku Maezawa, founder of online fashion site Zozo Inc, completed a tourist trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Soyuz spacecraft in December last year and plans to journey around the moon with Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX in 2023.