Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), shared a stunning timelapse video of Earth from space. Maezawa posted the video on Twitter, describing the view as "breathtaking." While aboard the ISS, astronauts enjoy a unique perspective of our planet as the station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles, completing roughly 16 orbits a day.
Maezawa wrote, "I captured a scene of Earth from the window of the ISS." This shows a complete orbit around the Earth. The 24-second video, although short, depicts the space station completing a full orbit of our planet. A stunning sunrise is visible at the beginning of the video, followed by a rapid view of Earth as the solar panels of the space station rotate and adjust their position during the orbit. The video ends with a beautiful sunset, indicating a full orbit around the planet.
Since his arrival at the ISS on December 8, Maezawa has kept his 10.8 million Twitter followers updated on his mission. He has posted videos explaining how to use the toilet aboard the ISS, as well as various images from inside the station, including a photo of him meditating in zero gravity conditions.
Maezawa launched to the ISS last week from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, accompanied by his assistant and film producer Yuzu Hirano. The duo will spend 12 days inside the giant orbital laboratory, after both spent the past few months training in "Star City," where they learned how to act under zero gravity protocols and in emergency situations.
While the exact cost of the trip remains undisclosed, previous clients have reportedly paid between $20 million to $40 million for trips to the ISS. However, this is unlikely to have a significant impact on Maezawa's net worth of $1.9 billion. At 46 years old and ranking as the 30th richest person in Japan, Maezawa made headlines in 2019 when he launched a search for a companion to join him on a lunar trip aboard a SpaceX spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in 2023. He later changed the focus of his request to searching for eight artists. If SpaceX succeeds in carrying out the trip, Maezawa and his accompanying crew of astronauts would become the first travelers on the moon since the last American Apollo mission in 1972.
