Maezawa’s mission, which covered a total of 4.6 million miles and 189 orbits of Earth, marked the first self-paid trip to the ISS since 2009. Precisely how much it cost hasn’t been revealed, though Maezawa recently hinted that he forked out around $80 million for the unique voyage.
In October the ISS hosted two Russian filmmakers for a short stay, but that excursion was financed by several media companies in a deal with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency that also organized this latest mission.
The recent tourism trips mark renewed efforts by space agencies to commercialize the ISS to raise funds for further exploration and research in space.
A NASA mission early next year, organized by space tourism company Axiom, will use SpaceX hardware to transport three tourists to the space station for a 10-day stay.
As for Maezawa, he’ll now be turning his attention to a far more ambitious mission involving a flyby of the moon. SpaceX is hoping to conduct the flight in the coming years, with Maezawa having already done a deal with Elon Musk’s spaceflight company for a seat on the spacecraft.