Big Bang's T.O.P to join Japanese billionaire's space trip project to fly to moon

T.O.P of K-pop boy band Big Bang will go to the moon next year.

According to dearMoon project website on the 9th, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who established online shopping mall Jojo Town, announced the list of eight crew members who will travel to the moon in a SpaceX spacecraft with him.

The dearMoon project is a first civilian moon mission led by Maezawa.

The eight crew members are all artists, and T.O.P is the only Korean.

Along with T.O.P, American DJ Steve Aoki, American YouTuber Tim Dodd, Czech choreographer Yemi A.D., Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam, British photographer Karim Iliya, American filmmaker Brendan Hall and Indian actor Dev Joshi are included.

T.O.P. said, "As a Korean artist, I want the dearMoon project to inspire the world, give people hope and make anyone with a dream that anything is possible."

Maejawa said, "I'm very excited to have amazing people travel to the moon with me. I'm expecting what inspiring creation they will create in space."

Next year, the eight people will travel around the moon's orbit and return to Earth for a total of six days on a spacecraft Starship developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX. It will not land on the moon.

Maezawa initially said he would invite 6-8 artists to board, but later selected crew members by competition.

Maezawa previously had a 12-day space trip on the International Space Station (ISS) on Russian spacecraft Soyuz last year. He reportedly spent 10 billion yen (about 96 billion won) on the space trip.

However, there is no plan for when the Starship spacecraft will be launched.

SpaceX has developed a prototype of the Starship spacecraft for moon and Mars exploration, but has yet to succeed in orbital spaceflight. (ANI/Global Economic)

( With inputs from ANI )