Rescheduled Launch Schedule Results in First Refund

A Japanese billionaire announced he would be pulling out of a prospective flight aboard one of SpaceX' Starships about 6 years after buying a ticket, citing a morass of delays and scheduling issues.

The basic problem comes down to the launch schedule, as it always does. SpaceX hoped to bootstrap development with fresh funding from would-be space tourists, but NASA's selection of the Starship platform for serious space missions threw all those plans into disarray. Now, Maezawa has said he's no longer on board, having signed on in 2018 for a launch date in 2023. Now, it's become clear that 'dearMoon' launch won't be happening anytime this decade, with all of Starship's schedule taken up with official duties, shakedowns, and tests.

"I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023," read Maezawa's tersely worded tweets. "It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch. I can't plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer. I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen."

It is what it is, in the grand scheme of things. SpaceX only has so much throughput in terms of payload, and there are only so many calendar days in a year, so many spacecraft, and so many demands. Maezawa hasn't mentioned a renewed program along the same lines, either, but it's notable that he's already gotten some space time in his logbook, when he went aboard the ISS for a 12-day stint.

FMI: www.spacex.com