First Openly Gay Man May Soon Travel to Space
Gays? In space?! While one could surely say LGBTQ people are ‘out of this world,’ in the literal sense, it may soon be more likely than you’d think. Jon Carmichael, a sport pilot and astronomy photographer, could be the first openly gay man to travel to space, as soon as 2023.
The journey will take place on SpaceX, a rocket developed by Elon Musk, which willy carry passengers past the moon, further from the Earth that anyone has traveled, before returning home. Musk had eight seats on board for sale, which Japanese fashion entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (also known as MZ) purchased.
MZ is also a renowned art collector and believes art can promote world peace. With that ideology, he created the dearMoon Project to scout eight, talented civilian artists to travel with him. Along the journey, artists are encouraged to create art to represent the experience and include their interactions and candid moments, which would then be exhibited.
That’s where Carmichael comes in.
He is best known for the photograph entitled “108” of the 2017 Great Solar Eclipse and its shadow on the ground below, for which he has received international acclaim.
View this post on Instagram
He applied for the opportunity to hopefully let allow his dream of seeing Earth from the moon become a reality. Carmichael made it through the third step of the process out of nearly 1 million applicants, and there is early buzz he may be a finalist.
Carmichael’s path intersected with the dearMoon Project once before: After all of the billboards in Times Square donned his “108” photograph, it elicited a repost from the project.
I’m beyond excited to announce that out of nearly 1M applicants, I have made it through step 3 of the @dearmoonproject – I have been thinking about this every single day for over 2 years.
Dreams = Possible
This is my official submission to get to the Moon ????✨????#dearMoonCrew pic.twitter.com/3yWvgPIIHi
— Jon Carmichael (@photographerjon) March 31, 2021
For more information on Carmichael’s journey so far, visit GayTravel.com, or sign up to to follow along for future updates.
Photo Courtesy of Jon Carmichael’s Official Facebook Page.
What's Your Reaction?
