ISS Visit Plans for Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano
The ISS was the destination for Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, in 2021. Our May report looked ahead to their proposed Soyuz mission. At that time, the planned launch date was 8 December from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Hirano planned to document the journey, while cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin would command the spacecraft. In addition, the visit would last around 12 days. The mission brought two private spaceflight participants together with an experienced professional commander.
Preparing for the ISS Journey
Training formed an essential part of the preparation for visiting the ISS. Space Adventures guided the participants through a programme at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City. Meanwhile, the team prepared for life aboard a spacecraft and station.
Read the Space Adventures mission overview for more background. For example, it explains the company’s role in training and planning the visit. Therefore, the journey involved much more than choosing a departure date or reserving a seat.
What Happened in December 2021?
The Soyuz MS-20 mission later reached the ISS on 8 December 2021. NASA confirmed that Misurkin, Maezawa and Hirano docked with the station. As a result, the plan discussed in our May article became a completed visit later that year.
See NASA’s docking report for the arrival details. This article preserves the context of the original announcement while making the later outcome clear. In particular, readers should not treat the 2021 launch date as an upcoming trip.
Explore More Space Tourism Stories
The ISS visit offers one example of private participation in orbital spaceflight. To discover more stories, browse RocketBreaks news. Alternatively, explore our Earth-based space experiences to connect with space through activities on the ground.