SPACE TOURIST In this photo released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, spaceflight participant 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, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. He is the first self-paying space tourist. AP PHOTO
MOSCOW: A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed to space Wednesday as the first self-paying space tourists in more than a decade.