An Irish photographer has been chosen to join the first tourist space flight to the dark side of the moon.
Cork native Rhiannon Adam will join eight other crew members on the dearMoon flight financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.
The crew is due to blast off on a SpaceX Starship for the six-day journey around the moon and back home again.
The crew are all artists and Maezawa hopes the trip will inspire new works that will be exhibited on their return to Earth.
Ms Adam beat off competition from hundreds of thousands of other applicants to join the space flight.
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Quoted on the dearMoon website, she said: “Every day I pinch myself”.
“It seems like an impossible dream coming true,” she said.
“I aim to create work that does justice to this transformative experience.”
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The 37-year-old was born in Cork and currently divides her time between the US and London.
In 1992, her parents sold everything they owned and bought a live-aboard sailing boat, Jannes.
From then on, the family lived on-board the boat, travelling around South America and the Caribbean.
She eventually moved to London to live with her art while she returned to mainstream education.
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Her work has won numerous awards, including the Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography and was named as one of The Photographers’ Gallery’s New Talents in 2019.
The dearMoon crew also includes musician Steve Aoki, K-pop star Top, actor Dev D. Joshi and YouTuber Tim Dodd.
It is scheduled to happen towards the end of next year.
