A commercial DJ, a K-pop rapper, and a space YouTuber have been chosen by a Japanese billionaire for a private SpaceX flight around the Moon.

Yusaku Maezawa, a businessman, revealed his team on Friday, following a global search for creative individuals last year.

The most high-profile selections are American DJ Steve Aoki and Korean star TOP.

The flight, which is scheduled for next year, could be the first human lunar journey since 1972.

A spacecraft would circle the moon, coming within 200 kilometres (124 miles) of the surface. From launch to return, the journey would take eight days.

However, the Starship rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX company, on which the crew is supposed to travel, has yet to receive approval from US regulators.

The ship has not even been approved for an orbital journey around the Earth and has been grounded for the past 18 months in Texas, after it completed a test launch in May 2021.

But Mr Maezawa made no mention of this delay in his video announcing the crew for the mission he's dubbed dearMoon.

The opening scene shows Mr Maezawa in a Japanese garden looking up at the moon. It then cuts to show the first crew member - DJ Aoki - at one of his shows.

"I can't miss this opportunity. My soul is begging for this," the Billboard-charting artist says in the video.

The next passenger revealed is Youtuber Tim Dodd - also known as the Everyday Astronaut- who has 1.4 million followers online for his educational videos on spaceflight and astrophysics.

In his own video released on Friday, the vlogger said he couldn't believe he'd been selected. He added that SpaceX's announcement in 2017 that it would send a civilian to the moon was "ironically, or poetically... actually what got me started making videos on Youtube."

TOP (Choi Seung Hyun), a K-pop rapper and former lead of the boyband, Big Bang (South Korea), Dancer and choreographer Yemi A.D (Czech Republic), Photographer Rhiannon Adam (Ireland), Wildlife photographer Karim Iliya (UK), Filmmaker Brendan Hall (US), Actor Dev Joshi (India), US Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as back-up dancers, these are the other announced dearMoon mission members.

"I hope each and everyone will recognise the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the moon and back," Mr Maezawa said.

"They will gain a lot from this experience and I hope they will use that to contribute to the planet, to humanity."

Mr Maezawa, who made his fortune in online fashion retailer Zozo, has become prominently involved in commercial space travel. Last year he went to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket for 12 days.

In 2018, he was named as the first private passenger due to be flown around the moon by SpaceX and said he would sponsor the cost of eight other passengers on board.


Mr Maezawa's agreed-upon price for his space ticket has not been disclosed, but Mr Musk claims it was "a lot of money."

He also launched a documentary search for a new girlfriend to accompany him on his moon voyage in 2020, before cancelling due to "mixed feelings."