BIGBANG’s T.O.P and DJ Steve Aoki to Join SpaceX’s First Civilian Lunar Mission

SpaceX‘s first all-civilian mission to the Moon, dubbed “dearMoon,” will include Choi Seung Hyun, also known as T.O.P from the Korean boy band BIGBANG. The mission, organised by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, was open to applicants from all backgrounds and ultimately selected eight crew members and two backups.

The all-civilian crew for SpaceX’s “dearMoon” mission to the Moon will be an eclectic group of individuals from various backgrounds and professions. The main crew will include Tim Dodd, a photographer and host of the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, as well as DJ Steve Aoki, Rhiannon Adam, Yemi A.D., Brendan Hall, Karim Iliya, and Dev D. Joshi. Meanwhile, snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu have been selected as backup crew members.

Crew for Moon Trip Selected!!#dearMoonCrew @dearmoonprojecthttps://t.co/P0vEZ6Cibo

— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) (@yousuckMZ) December 8, 2022

Rhiannon Adam is a photographic artist from Ireland who now works in London and the US, while Yemi A.D. is a Czech Republic-based designer, director, choreographer, and non-profit organisation founder. Brendan Hall is a filmmaker who has worked with National Geographic, and Karim Iliya is a filmmaker who documents threatened species. Dev D. Joshi, the final member of the main crew, is an actor from India.

The “dearMoon” mission could be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972. It will be carried out on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, which will circle the Moon and come within 200km of its surface. The trip is scheduled to last eight days from launch to return. Initially, Maezawa planned to take only artists on the trip, but he later announced that anyone could apply as long as they considered themselves to be artists. He received around a million applications and selected a group of musicians and other creatives to join him on the mission. It is unclear why he chose T.O.P. specifically, but the K-pop artist did wear a spacesuit in one of BIGBANG’s music videos.