Irish woman Rhiannon Adam has been chosen to take part in the first civilian mission around the Moon.
The mission, known as the DearMoon project, will launch on Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket the following year.
In order to “give as many talented individuals as possible the opportunity to go,” Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa paid for every seat on the rocket in 2018.
Eight crew members, including Adam, were chosen out of a million applicants from around the world.
Born in Cork in 1985, she is a photographic artist and currently lives and works between London and the US.
Speaking about what made her apply for the space adventure, she said:
“I think it was just in the middle of the pandemic and I was craving adventure and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“And I spend a lot of my life working with very remote communities and it felt like a natural thing to do, to apply to go to space and explore the most remote community ever, which would be us in space.
“Every day I pinch myself; it seems like an impossible dream coming true. I aim to create work that does justice to this transformative experience.”
Adam will become the first Irish person in space as a result of being selected for the DearMoon project.
She will be travelling with American music producer Steve Aoki, South Korean rapper TOP, Indian TV actor Dev Joshi, Canadian documentary filmmaker Brendan Hall, Czech dancer Yemi AD, US content creator Tim Dodd, and Czech photographer Karim Iliya as crew members.
“I’m very thrilled to have these amazing people join me on my journey to the moon and excited to see what inspiring creations they come up with in space,” Maezawa said in a statement.
As part of the flight, Starship will make a week-long journey in which it will orbit the Moon before returning to Earth.