A Japanese billionaire and his producer have rocketed into space as the first self-paying space tourists since 2009.
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Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and producer Yozo Hirano, who plans to film his mission, blasted off for the International Space Station on Wednesday in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
The trio lifted off as scheduled at 12.38pm local time aboard Soyuz MS-20 from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.
Maezawa and Hirano are scheduled to spend 12 days in space. The two will be the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. The price of the trip hasn't been disclosed.
"I would like to look at the Earth from space. I would like to experience the opportunity to feel weightlessness," Maezawa said during a pre-flight news conference on Tuesday.
"And I also have a personal expectation: I'm curious how the space will change me, how I will change after this space flight."
Australian Associated Press
