Japanese Tycoon Takes Off for International Space Station

Yusaku Maezawa of Japan, member of the main crew of the new Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), gestures prior the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Dec. 8, 2021. Pavel Kassin/Roscosmos Space Agency via AP

MOSCOW—A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed to space Wednesday for a 12-day mission at the International Space Station.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and producer Yozo Hirano, who plans to film his mission, blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.