Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wishes for 20-day space vacation, says 12 days are 'not enough'

Japanese business tycoon and the first space tourist from Japan, Yusaku Maezawa, landed on Earth from his space trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, December 20. The billionaire spent 12 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, however, he still seemed unsatisfied with his space vacation as he wished for a longer stay. In a presser organised by Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, Maezawa said that he would like to stay in the ISS for 20 days on his next trip.

‘12 days are not enough’, said Maezawa

In a virtual press conference that Maezawa attended from Star City space flight training facility, he said as per Phys.Org-

It takes three or four days to adapt and then you realize that there are just eight days left and it's not enough. A 20-day mission would be ideal, but 30 days would be too much for me.

Further sharing his experience to the reporters, he said that humans should take care of the planet adding that a flight to orbit will provide a different view of the Earth and a new attitude to the people. In a tweet shared earlier today, Maezawa asserted the same thing as he wrote, “I thought that if great people from all over the world went to space and looked at the earth from space and did something like an international conference, the earth would be even more kind. I thought it would be peaceful”.

Besides, he also expressed his willingness for a spacewalk in the future and said that he will try to make the space ration more diverse as the canned food in the space station was quite boring. The 46-year-old made his first-ever space trip with his assistant and video producer Yozo Hirano (36) and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and the trio is currently in rehabilitation in order to get used to the conditions here on Earth. All three are under the supervision of the doctors as they try to restore their normal physical form through exercises. 

Maezawa’s $80 million space trip

Founder of Zozotown, Japan’s biggest online fashion mall, Maezawa’s estimated net worth stands at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes. As for his space trip that was organised by Virginia-based company Space Adventures, multiple media reports speculate that the billionaire paid close to $80 million or more. Although Maezawa did not confirm the amount, he said that the figure is close enough. Next up for Japan’s first space tourist to the ISS is a trip to the Moon, as he will hitch a ride in SpaceX’s rocket in 2023 under the mission ‘Dear Moon’.

Image: Twitter/@yousuck2020