Eight including an India actor selected for all-civilian Moon mission

Eight participants from across the world including the Indian television serial “Baalveer” fame Dev D Joshi have been selected to be part of an all-civilian squad to voyage around the moon in 2023. These people will fly around the Moon aboard Starship, a rocket being developed by the Space exploration company SpaceX. 

They (eight members and two backup crew) have been chosen from one million applications submitted to the dearMoon project from around the world. dearMoon is a project fully funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (founder of fashion site ZOZO). Maezawa visited the International Space Station(ISS) on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last year and spent 12 days there.

Along with Maezawa, members going on this mission are — DJ Steve Aoki (USA), rapper Choi Seung Hyun aka T.O.P (South Korea), choreographer Yemi A.D. (Czech Republic), photographer Rhiannon Adam (Ireland), YouTube creator Tim Dodd (USA), photographer Karim Iliya (UK), filmmaker Brendon Hall (USA) and Joshi (India). These apart, the two backup crew members are dancer Miyu (Japan) and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington (USA).

Joshi is well known for portraying the role of the fictional character Baalveer on Sony Sab’s highly popular shows Baalveer and Balveer Returns. On being selected for the trip, Joshi said, “Always be positive and be passionate, because miracles happen, and they happen anytime, which came in the form of dearMoon for me! I am thrilled to have been chosen for this landmark project and I am really looking forward to some wonderful experiences.”

Earlier this week, Maezawa had teased a ‘major announcement’ after a meeting with SpaceX head Elon Musk. “...I wanted my invitation to reach out to a broader community and give more people from around the globe the chance to join this journey,” he said in an earlier video announcement about the dearMoon project.