A CORK artist has said she is "devastated" after the moon mission she was due to travel on was cancelled. The space project, funded by a Japanese billionaire, was due to be the first private flight around the moon. Yusaku Maezawa announced that he was cancelling his "dear Moon" mission this morning.
In November he had said that the mission would be delayed until this year or later, before ultimately cancelling it today. Cork -born photographer and artist Rhiannon Adam was chosen as one of the eight passengers to board the SpaceX rocket. She was set to be the first Irish person to go to space .
DJ Steve Aoki and K-pop star TOP were also supposed to be on it. Rhiannon, who now lives in London , described it as a "missed opportunity" and explained how upset she was over the cancellation. Taking to X , she said: "To say I'm devastated would be an understatement.
This is such a missed opportunity - to provide some hope, to encourage others to dream. "I still love space and I am passionate about the importance of sending artists and writers to experience the overview effect. We need it.
"The first men to see the moon at close range - the Apollo 8 astronauts - called for poets in space. That still has never happened, but I hope that with the rapid advances in space technology, that the dream will happen." She added: "It’s a missed opportunity to do something bigger.
What dearMoon represented was bigger than an individual. And with that came responsibility that has now been dropped.