Kaitlyn Farrington won a gold medal in the women’s halfpipe at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and now plans a trip to the moon.
Farrington, who will turn 33 on Sunday, was chosen last week to be a backup crew member for the dear Moon Project.
This is a lunar tourism mission and art project conceived and financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. It will make use of a SpaceX Starship spacecraft on a private spaceflight flying a single circumlunar trajectory around the Moon. The passengers will be Maezawa, eight other civilians, and one or two crew members.
The project is scheduled to launch in 2023. The project objective is to have eight passengers travel with Maezawa for free around the Moon on a six-day tour. Maezawa expects that the experience of space tourism will inspire the accompanying passengers in the creation of something new.