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Billionaire Hosts Girlfriend Contest for 'First Woman to the Moon' and (Shocker) People Hate It

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By Chelsea Gohd
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Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's ad for his "girlfriend contest" that has sparked a ton of negative feedback.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's ad for his "girlfriend contest" that has sparked a ton of negative feedback. (Image credit: Twitter/Yusaku Maezawa)

Will the first woman to travel to the moon be the winner of a billionaire's "girlfriend contest"? We really hope not. 

On Sunday (Jan. 12), Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder of the Japanese online retailer Zozotown and an avid fine art collector, tweeted, "[WANTED!!!] Why not be the 'first woman' to travel to the moon? #MZ_looking_for_love," alongside an image of him with the moon with the caption "come to the moon with me?"

In 2018, Maezawa announced that he and six to eight artists would become the first passengers on SpaceX's Starship spacecraft, which would fly around the moon without landing. Now, it seems as though the 44-year-old father of two intends for one of those seats to go to the winner of his contest looking for women age 20 or older to apply to be his girlfriend and the "first woman to the moon."

Related: How SpaceX's 1st Passenger Flight Around the Moon Will Work
Video: Meet SpaceX BFR's First Paying Customer, Yusaku Maezawa

The backlash

In a turn of events that is shocking to no one, this call for girlfriend applications has received immediate, intense backlash.

A large number of the responses on Maezawa's tweet include expletives (and are therefore not included here). Overall, it seems as though most people have negative feelings about this contest. 

One major criticism of the contest, which many have echoed on Twitter, is that the contest aims to fly the "first woman to the moon." So, instead of one of the many women who have worked tirelessly to become astronauts, or who hope to one day become astronauts, making this historic journey, it would be a woman chosen by a billionaire solely for a romantic relationship. 

So, not only would the woman chosen by Maezawa be a prop in a largely publicized spectacle, but this contest could set an example for younger generations of women that their willingness to engage in a romantic relationship could get them farther than hard work in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field. 

Related: Who Will Be the First Woman on the Moon?

"'Mom, who was the first woman to travel to the moon?' 'Well, she won a dating contest...'" is *not* the answer I would want to give my child. Not against the concept in general, but firsts are special. History remembers them. I need this one to be done right," Emily Calandrelli, an Emmy-nominated science communicator and host of the "Xploration Outer Space" science TV show on Fox, said on Twitter in response to Maezawa's contest. 

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Naia Butler-Craig, an aerospace engineer and PhD student at Georgia Tech, added on Twitter, "Just cause I know this will probably get negative traction: No shade to the lady who accepts but my heart will hurt if in history books the first woman to go to the moon is only going to be known as a billionaires girlfriend. Not the message we want to send to future explorers."

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The contest

The matchmaking fiasco, which is currently being turned into a documentary called "Full Moon Lovers" to be broadcast on a streaming service, is accepting applications until Jan. 17. 

On the contest website that Maezawa links to in his tweet, he specifies even further what he's looking for in a girlfriend. According to his specifications on the page, applicants must have a "bright personality and always positive," be "interested in going into space and able to participate in the preparation for it," "want to enjoy life to the fullest" and "be someone who wishes for world peace."

SpaceX's progress

The flight plan for the #dearMoon mission, which will use a SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rocket to launch a group of artists on a mission to fly around the moon. (Image credit: SpaceX/#dearMoon)

In 2018, when Maezawa first started planning his moon journey, the Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicle — which were then collectively known as the BFR, or Big Falcon Rocket — were in the early stages of development. 

In September 2019, SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk unveiled the first completed Starship prototype, the Mk1, and he provided an update on SpaceX's progress toward getting its new reusable spaceship and megarocket off the ground and, ultimately, to the moon. A couple of months later, in November, a prototype of the spacecraft suffered an anomaly during a pressure test. 

SpaceX plans to launch the first test flight of its Starship prototype as early as October, with the first commercial launches beginning in 2021. The first Starship missions will launch satellites into low Earth orbit, but eventually SpaceX aims to use the spacecraft for human missions to the moon, Mars and potentially even other destinations in the solar system. 

Maezawa's mission, named #dearMoon, is currently on track to launch to the moon in 2023. Together with a group of six to eight artists (including, possibly, the winner of this contest), Maezawa will travel in a loop around the moon — without landing on it — in a flight lasting five days and 23 hours. 

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Chelsea Gohd
Space.com

Chelsea Gohd joined Space.com as an intern in the summer of 2018 and returned as a Staff Writer in 2019. After receiving a B.S. in Public Health, she worked as a science communicator at the American Museum of Natural History. Chelsea has written for publications including Scientific American, Discover Magazine Blog, Astronomy Magazine, Live Science, All That is Interesting, AMNH Microbe Mondays blog, The Daily Targum and Roaring Earth. When not writing, reading or following the latest space and science discoveries, Chelsea is writing music, singing, playing guitar and performing with her band Foxanne (@foxannemusic). You can follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. 

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Jpmusing
    As much as I understand the negative response to this, it doesn't seem that much different from when "The Bachelor" first debuted on TV where women were competing for a hot guy and a ring. I thought it was crazy that these contestants would want to marry someone after only a few weeks spent with other catty women 😸 but it didn't seem to bother the public then 🤷. At least here he has an artistic mission with requirements and there's a crew of people going with him, who's to say there isn't a female already in the crew? Plus they aren't even landing on the moon, just circumnavigating it so it won't even be the "first female on the moon" 😄. This reminds me of those publicity stunts in history (Spruce Goose etc etc). I just wish we could actually use all this money to solve the dire problems here on Earth because this is the only planet so far in the entire galaxy that supports life as we naturally know it. Peace ✌️
    Reply
  • Ron9791
    Other than where they would be going is it much different than asking a person to the movies or for a companion on a trip?
    Reply
  • insanemurderbaby34
    Too bad. Do your own thing to get to the moon. Otherwise, be mad. If it was a billionaire woman there would be guys ready to go on a date with her to the moon too.
    Reply
  • dannykun
    I understand the argument that firsts are special, but I think it's important to bear in mind several caveats here:

    1) It's a group of 6-8 people, won't there be any other women? And if not, maybe that's a bigger problem.

    2) This 'first' woman to 'go to the moon' isn't actually stepping on the moon, and when the first woman does finally step on the moon, that will surely overshadow this billionaire's date (consider, how many people can name any astronauts on Apollo 9/10 off the top of their head?).

    3) Do you think anyone has the right to tell this guy how to spend his money? Without his money and his extravagant use of it, the trip wouldn't happen, so I think he reserves the right to take any guest he chooses (however he chooses). And if you do want to argue about how people spend their money, you should probably be arguing that they spend it on charitable donations or scientific progress (of course in one sense, paying for her spot is paying for scientific progress), not over what guests are taken on a tourist trip.

    4) Do you think the 'first woman to go to the moon' should be a qualified astronaut who has been given a free spot on a tourist flight? I don't think that's very different from a highly qualified (female) biologist/zoologist, being given a spot on a tourist safari in lieu of a real research expedition. In my mind, that's far more insulting to her than having her wait a bit longer until a real trip that properly utilizes her skillset can be afforded.

    TO CLOSE (this unnecessarily long comment), it's been 45 years since NASA has landed on the moon. Rather than getting upset by how very wealthy people spend their own money, maybe the point people (who are upset about this) should be making is that NASA should go back to the moon and take qualified women astronauts (not for the sake of taking women to the moon, but for the sake of conducting valuable experiments with state-of-the-art technology and taking women is only a natural part of fulfilling that objective).
    Reply
  • Dorkinstine
    The trip Is funded by the tourist, like the ships in the movie 2012, and the agenda of the Prometheus trip
    The rich pay and get the reward, space ex is private, trained scientist and astronauts are great but it's the man's money, can do as he likes, also if a girl wants to date a billionaire good for her
    If he was intrested in an fifty year old guy id apply.
    People are really angry these days. But jelouse? Maybe.
    Reply