...somehow going to space with a rich middle aged man who collects art is exactly the kind of mental image I have of TOP

Quote from kazuyakamenashi

Hate to bust everyone's bubble but this clown world shit won't happen. Despite the hoohah of elon musk etc and the "privatization" of space. This little mission will not happen. Let me explain why? Space is very fucking hard and extremely dangerous far more dangerous than any endeavor our species has tried. Because of this those chosen to goto space has always been the very best of our species, every astronaut either hired by the government= NASA or any Nations space agency or private space company has atlest 2 if not more degrees and perfect physical and mental health plus shown impeccable ability to problem solve and fix anything on the fly. Because space is soo damn dangerous, there has been countless incidents since the first moon landing over 70yrs ago, almost all of them averted disaster because the astronauts were able to fix problems with nothing like fix a leaking oxygen system with no tools no backups etc. Space travel is very hard extremely dangerous and very fucking expensive which is why only the best of our species is picked for any mission period. No amount of money would a crew risk having dead weight on their ship= your average person a goofy billionaire or a kpop idol those people are NOT qualified to handle that experience and can jeopardize a mission just being there. Lastly to even ride on a space ship let alone prolonged space flight requires you to have perfect mental and physical health something top doesn't have he would be disqualified upon examination.

Space travel is risky and extremely expensive, but space isn't owned by any government, so private citizens can go if they can afford it and they can pass the general requirements (which I assume TOP has at least done in a preliminary sense if it's being announced to the public). The man TOP is going with actually went to the ISS last year, so this won't be his first time in space.