A Japanese billionaire and his production assistant have actually securely gone back to Earth after spending almost 12 days in space filming and publishing videos online about their experience.Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online style merchant, and Yozo Hirano, his videographer, landed with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos on the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft on Sunday (Dec. 19). The 3 crewmates touched down at about 10:13 p.m. EST (0313 GMT or 9:13 a.m. regional time on Dec. 20) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.The parachute-assisted landing marked completion of Russias very first short-stay objective to the International Space Station devoted exclusively to flying 2 self-funded spaceflight participants (or “space travelers”) on the exact same spacecraft. Earlier flights had only one personal astronaut on the crew and were arranged around the swap of a new Soyuz with one that had been docked to the area station for several months.Related: New area traveler videos reveal Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawas life in orbitRussias Soyuz MS-20 descent module is seen beside a recovery lorry after landing upright in Kazakhstan from the International Space Station with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Japanese spaceflight individuals Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. (Image credit: NASA TV)Misurkin, Maezawa and Hirano got to the spaceport station on Dec. 8, six hours after introducing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Even before leaving Earth, Maezawa began sharing his journey through a series of short-form videos that were filmed and modified by Hirano and posted to YouTube. Those clips were followed by 14 videos developed while in area, ranging in subjects from “fashion in space” to “making music in area” to “eating treats in absolutely no gravity.”Filmed in Japanese (with English subtitles in some cases offered), the video blogs (or “vlogs”) drew an audience ranging from a few hundred thousand to countless viewers. Maezawas most popular post with 6.6 million views (as of Sunday night) explained how he prepared to continue his free gift of money to those who follow him on social media.”If you happen to be rich, and abundant like me, I think you ought to contribute increasingly more,” stated Maezawa, adding that he prefers to offer straight to individuals than through organizations. “For these reasons, I have been offering away about 3 billion yen [about $26.4 million] for the past three years.”The Soyuz MS-20 crew (front row) positions for a group picture with the Expedition 66 team. Front row, from left, are Yusaku Maezawa, Alexander Misurkin and Yozo Hirano. In the middle row, from left, are Pyotr Dubrov, Anton Shkaplerov and Mark Vande Hei. In the back, from left, is Matthias Maurer, Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron. (Image credit: NASA)The giveaway began on Sunday early morning, a number of hours before Maezawa, Hirano and Misurkin boarded Soyuz MS-20 and closed its hatch to begin getting ready for their journey home. The spacecraft undocked from the stations Poisk research study module at 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT). 3 hours later at 9:18 p.m. EST (0318 GMT Dec. 20), the Soyuz performed a deorbit burn, beginning the pills plunge back to Earth.Russian healing forces were staged near the landing website to meet the crew, assist them out of the Soyuz descent module and conduct preliminary medical checks. Misurkin, Maezawa and Hirano were then to be zipped helicopter to the staging city of Karaganda before boarding a plane for Star City, Russia and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.The Soyuz MS-20 patch includes an eagle to represent commander Alexander Misurkin and Yusaku Maezawas MZ logo design. (Image credit: Roscosmos)Maezawas and Hiranos flight contracts were negotiated by Space Adventures, the only business to date to fly its customers to the International Space Station. Prior to Soyuz MS-20, Space Adventures organized 8 flights for seven self-funded astronauts (one flew two times). Maezawa, 46, is the CEO of Start Today and creator of ZOZO, an online retail clothes business, which he sold to Yahoo! Japan. In 2018, he paid a undisclosed however considerable total up to SpaceX for a circumlunar flight on the companys still-in-development Starship spacecraft. Maezawas “dearMoon” mission, which will fly him and a crew of artists around the moon, is presently targeted for launch in 2023. Hirano, 36, managed the photography group at ZOZO and is now a movie producer at Start Today. In addition to shooting Maezawa during the mission, Hirano likewise participated in human health and performance research study on behalf of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The research studies included collecting electrocardiogram readings and using a portable auto-refractor device to collect sight data.Misurkin, 44, has now finished his third spaceflight, having actually formerly served on the stations Expedition 35/36 and Expedition 53/54 crews. He has now logged an overall of 346 days in area. On Soyuz MS-20, Misurkin became the first space-based reporter for the Russian news company TASS, composing and submitting posts about a blood flow experiment and a makeshift badminton match aboard the spaceport station, to name a few updates.Misurkin, Maezawa and Hirano assisted set a brand-new record for the most individuals in space at the very same time. For the couple of minutes that Blue Origins 3rd human flight was in area on Dec. 11, there were 19 people off the planet, including the 3 Soyuz MS-20 crewmates, seven-person Expedition 66 crew on the International Space Station, the 3 Shenzhou 13 taikonauts on Chinas spaceport station and 6 travelers aboard the New Shepard 19 mission.The Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft took a trip an overall of 6.4 million miles (10.3 million km) while finishing 189 orbits of Earth.Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2021 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
A Japanese billionaire and his production assistant have securely returned to Earth after spending nearly 12 days in space filming and posting videos online about their experience.Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online style seller, and Yozo Hirano, his videographer, landed with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos on the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft on Sunday (Dec. 19). Earlier flights had only one personal astronaut on the crew and were scheduled around the swap of a brand-new Soyuz with one that had actually been docked to the area station for numerous months.Related: New space tourist videos reveal Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawas life in orbitRussias Soyuz MS-20 descent module is seen beside a healing vehicle after landing upright in Kazakhstan from the International Space Station with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. Those clips were followed by 14 videos produced while in area, ranging in subjects from “fashion in space” to “making music in area” to “eating snacks in zero gravity. On Soyuz MS-20, Misurkin ended up being the very first space-based correspondent for the Russian news agency TASS, writing and submitting articles about a blood flow experiment and a makeshift badminton match aboard the space station, among other updates.Misurkin, Maezawa and Hirano assisted set a new record for the many individuals in area at the exact same time. For the couple of minutes that Blue Origins 3rd human flight was in area on Dec. 11, there were 19 people off the world, including the three Soyuz MS-20 crewmates, seven-person Expedition 66 crew on the International Space Station, the three Shenzhou 13 taikonauts on Chinas space station and six passengers aboard the New Shepard 19 mission.The Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft traveled a total of 6.4 million miles (10.3 million km) while finishing 189 orbits of Earth.Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE.