Yusaku Maezawa canceled his private dearMoon circumlunar mission on June 1, 2024, because its planned launch by the end of 2023 had become infeasible and SpaceX could not provide near-term schedule certainty. The date was a project target—not evidence of a publicly guaranteed, binding SpaceX deadline.
What happened to the dearMoon mission?
dearMoon was a proposed civilian flight around the Moon and back aboard SpaceX’s Starship. Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa announced the project in 2018, planning to invite artists so they could share the experience with the public.
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In its June 1, 2024 cancellation notice, the dearMoon Project said that launching within 2023 had become unfeasible and that there was no clear schedule certainty in the near term. Maezawa therefore canceled the project.
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The Associated Press reported that eight companions had been selected from about one million applicants. The official notice itself described artists from around the world but did not state a headcount.
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Why did Maezawa cancel dearMoon?
The 2023 launch target was no longer realistic
The project had been arranging for a launch by the end of 2023. By the time of the cancellation, that target had passed without a flight, and the project said it was no longer feasible.
Starship’s schedule remained uncertain
Maezawa told the Associated Press that he had signed the 2018 agreement assuming dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023. He later said, “It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch.”
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He could not keep the crew waiting indefinitely
Maezawa also said, “I can’t plan my future in this situation and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence (I made) the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time.” The decision ended the mission rather than leaving its participants on an open-ended wait.
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Was SpaceX’s “deadline” a guarantee?
Not on the evidence available from the cancellation notice and contemporaneous reporting. “Deadline” is a shorthand for the end-of-2023 target and Maezawa’s assumption when he signed in 2018. The notice says arrangements were being made to target a launch by then; it does not establish that SpaceX publicly guaranteed a binding date.
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Key dates in the cancellation
| Date | What it represents |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Maezawa said he signed the agreement assuming a launch by the end of 2023. |
| End of 2023 | The launch target described in the dearMoon cancellation notice. |
| November 2023 | TechCrunch reported that the mission had already been delayed indefinitely. |
| June 1, 2024 | The dearMoon Project announced cancellation; the Associated Press published Maezawa’s explanation the same day. |
| June 3, 2024 | Futurism published the headline story describing the canceled trip. |
What the mission was supposed to do
The planned flight would have been the first Starship mission intended to carry people around the Moon and return them to Earth, according to TechCrunch’s contemporaneous report. It was a private civilian expedition, not a NASA mission, and depended on Starship reaching the required development and operational milestones.
What happens next?
The cancellation notice said Maezawa and the crew members would continue in their respective fields. It did not announce a replacement flight, a new launch date or a refund policy. Later coverage may describe dearMoon as canceled in 2024, but that status should not be confused with a current forecast for Starship’s readiness or future lunar missions.
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Maezawa’s public apology
Futurism’s June 3, 2024 report quoted Maezawa saying, “I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen.” That apology followed the decision to end the mission after the schedule uncertainty made continued planning impractical.
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