Preparations To Launch Into The ISS, Japanese Billionaires Do 'unusual' Exercises Every Day

Before launching into the ISS, Yusaku Maezawa did some training first. (photo: twitter)

JAKARTA - This week's billionaire and businessman from Japan, Yusaku Maezawa will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

However, before launching into the ISS, Maezawa did some training first. Interestingly, his training was unusual for his mission this week.

Via his Twitter account @yousuckMZ, Maezawa tweeted three activities he titled unusual training in Russia.

【11 days until Launch🚀】

Unusual training in Russia ③

The spinning chair - almost feels like torture. Some cosmonauts say it’s necessary, some say it’s not. Either way, it’s the hardest training ever done.

※Warning: eyes will be spinning just by watching#MZJourneytoSpace pic.twitter.com/ARzh7yaXXk

— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) (@yousuckMZ) November 27, 2021

Citing Digital Trends, Monday, December 6, the first practice, Maezawa placed a block of wood under the foot of his bed, which was intended to allow blood to flow to his head while he slept. The second practice is where he plays badminton every day, which seems to keep Maezawa's knees and hips active.

In the third exercise, Maezawa uses a spinning chair, although it looks like an outing on a children's merry-go-round, Maezawa describes it as the hardest training ever to do.

From exercises, one and three seem to be the preparation for the microgravity conditions that will be experienced by Maezawa and his colleagues on the space station, the game of badminton seems to be geared towards improving physical fitness ahead of the trip.

On the way to the ISS, of course, Maezawa isn't alone, he brings along producer Yozo Hirano, who will document the journey, and veteran cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, the three of whom will spend 11 days aboard the ISS's leading module in orbit before returning to Earth.

Maezawa himself has a fortune that comes from the online fashion retail business. He is believed to have paid tens of millions of dollars to board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS on Wednesday, December 8. He is also the man who hopes to fly to the Moon in 2023.

The six-hour journey to the space station will begin with a rocket launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Maezawa and Hirano will be the latest of a growing number of non-professional astronauts to orbital travel in a new era of commercial space travel.

Just a few months ago a Russian filmmaker and actor spent nearly two weeks on the ISS, shooting scenes for a film called Challenge, while in September SpaceX sent a civilian crew into orbit for three days.

The next trip record involving amateur astronauts is set for January 2022 and will use a SpaceX rocket to carry a crew of four to the ISS on a mission organized by space tourism company Axiom.