In March 2021, Yusaku Maezawa, the space-obsessed Japanese billionaire behind e-commerce site Zozotown, announces a competition to select eight civilian crew members to join him on a private space flight. The week-long task, called my dearwill fly around the Moon and return on the SpaceX Starship sometime in 2023.
One of the people who took a close interest in Maezawa’s mission was Tim Dodd, the professional photographer who turned YouTube into space from Iowa. Also known as the Everyday Astronaut, Dodd has a YouTube channel with 1.37 million subscribers where he covers public and private rocket launches that happen around the world.
“I made the decision, Yes, why not? I will applyDodd said. He made a video explaining why he wanted to be on dearMoon but never thought he’d make it to the final eight. “I didn’t even remotely consider the possibility of going,” he said. “I really felt like it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
Against the odds — Maezawa said more than a million people have applied for the moon mission — Dodd was announced as one of the crew earlier this month, along with musician Steve Aoki, K-pop artist Top, Indian actor Dev Joshi, and four others. They will accompany Maezawa, who last year flew to the International Space Station on the Soyuz spacecraft. Crew members have passed full health checks and a series of tests, but must still undergo months of rigorous training.
Earlier this year, Coby Cotton appeared on the Dude Perfect YouTube channel He went into suborbital space on the Blue Origin mission, but Dodd will be the first full-time YouTuber to travel to outer space. “I have an opportunity to push those boundaries a little further by going to the moon,” Dowd said. (The mission will not actually land on the moon.)
“It’s crazy to think of being 240,000 miles from home,” he said. “How do you prepare physically and mentally for that? It’s just so absurd. To get through all that and live through that experience, to see and feel it and then go through the upswing and the downswing and knowing you’re safe on the ground and back home, I think the emotions are going to be very high. I don’t think you’re going to be able to the job “.
To reach the final eight, Dodd underwent multiple Zoom interviews with the dearMoon Project. Among the questions asked Dodd and others was what they could bring to the expedition. “I’m like, honestly, I have no idea,” he recalls. “I might just sit there and cry for two days.” Jokes aside, Dowd touted his photography and videography skills, as well as his expertise in space. “I can communicate,” he said. “I can help explain what’s going on to the crew.”