Yusaku Maezawa, “The roller coaster of Fuji-Q Highland is scarier” for the launch

The founder and president of Start Today, the first Japanese civilian to stay at the International Space Station (ISS) for 12 days. Yusaku Maezawa (46) held a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Japan in Tokyo on the 7th. After returning to the earth on December 20, 2009 and returning to Japan on the afternoon of the 23rd, he is conducting voluntary quarantine, which is being carried out as a measure against the border of the new coronavirus infection. became.

Did Mr. Maezawa have any fear when he went to space? When asked, he immediately answered, “I wasn’t scared.” Regarding the situation when the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-20 was launched, “Early story, the roller coaster of Fuji-Q Highland is scarier. I get out of the Shinkansen platform … I see the scenery moving. It feels like a lift-off (self-flying after taking off) like that, “he said in a unique way.

On the other hand, it is said that the return to the earth was difficult. “On the way back, it takes 5 or 6G (gravitational acceleration) when entering the atmosphere. It’s tough. The moment the parachute opens, it shakes so much that I was scared,” he recalled with a laugh.

Mr. Maezawa launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:38 pm (4:38 Japan time) on December 8, 2008. I boarded the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-20 and headed for space. About 6 hours after the launch, Soyuz succeeded in docking with the ISS at 6:48 (10:48). At 9:11 pm on the 8th (1:11 am on the 9th of Japan time), the hatch connecting the two was opened, and Mr. Maezawa and his colleagues entered the ISS. Then, at 8:52 am on the 20th, Soyuz was undocked with the ISS, flew into outer space, and was on his way home. At 12:13 pm, the Return Module landed on the plains of Kazakhstan, returned to Earth, and returned to Japan on the 23rd. It was the second Japanese commercial space flight in 31 years since Toyohiro Akiyama, a former TBS reporter.