Rocket carrying Japanese tycoon docks at ISS

Rocket carrying Japanese tycoon docks at ISS

BAIKONUR: A Russian rocket carrying a Japanese billionaire docked with the International Space Station yesterday, marking the country’s return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States. Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier yesterday.

They docked with the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 1340 GMT, the Russian space agency said. “We have contact,” Roscosmos tweeted. Their journey aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin took just over six hours, capping a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel. Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, bursting into a market Russia is keen to defend.

A crowd at the launch site — including Maezawa’s family and friends — braved freezing temperatures and cheered as the rocket blasted off into the grey sky, leaving a trail of orange flames before disappearing in the clouds. “This has been a long process. It’s so moving. I was about to cry,” said Ryo Okubo, a lawyer for Maezawa’s space projects. “I’m