Daisuke Enomoto
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese businessman and former livedoor
Livedoor
is an Internet service provider based in Tokyo, Japan, that runs a web portal and numerous other businesses. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known as "Horiemon" in Japan...

 executive who hoped to become the fourth space tourist
Space tourism
Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...

. He had trained at Star City, Moscow in Russia to fly with two members of Expedition 14
Expedition 14
Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...

 on board Soyuz TMA-9
Soyuz TMA-9
-Crew notes:Daisuke Enomoto Was originally scheduled to be the spaceflight participant, but on on 21 August 2006, he was determined to be unfit for the flight due to medical reasons, and replaced by Anousheh Ansari, his back-up crew member.-Docking with ISS:...

, which was launched on September 18, 2006.

However, on August 21, 2006, a Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman announced that Enomoto was "deemed not ready to fly for exclusively medical reasons", although he hinted that Enomoto might recover and join a later mission. His replacement on this particular flight was Iranian-American
Iranian-American
Iranian-Americans are Americans of Iranian ancestry or people possessing Iranian and American dual citizenship.Iranian-Americans are amongst the most highly educated groups in the United States...

 businesswoman Anousheh Ansari
Anousheh Ansari
Anousheh Ansari is an engineer and the Iranian-American co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. . The Ansari family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize. On September 18, 2006,...

. Enomoto was involved in a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 against Virginia-based Space Adventures
Space Adventures
Space Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...

 in which he hoped to reclaim the $21 million dollars he paid the company over a two-year span. During the lawsuit, it was revealed that the "medical reason" was chronic kidney stones. Space Adventures claims it advised Enomoto to treat the kidney stones aggressively and when he didn't, they had to disqualify him from spaceflight. Enomoto claims the real reason for his disqualification was his refusal to provide additional funds to Space Adventures.

Enomoto would have been the first self-funded space tourist from Japan and Asia (journalist Toyohiro Akiyama
Toyohiro Akiyama
is a Japanese TV journalist best known for his flight to the Mir space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1990. Akiyama is the first person of Japanese descent to have flown in space. He was known as the "Space Journalist" in Japan....

 flew on Soyuz TM-11
Soyuz TM-11
-Mission highlights:Soyuz TM-11 was launched the same day as STS-35.11th expedition to Mir. Toyohiro Akiyama was a reporter/space tourist for a Japanese television network....

 in 1990, and could be regarded as the first space business traveller). Enomoto's flight would have taken him to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS) after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...

 in Kazakhstan, the world's oldest spaceport
Spaceport
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

.

Enomoto made international news when it was revealed that he intended to go into space wearing a costume
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...

 akin to that of Char Aznable
Char Aznable
, born is a fictional character from the Gundam franchise. He is originally one of the main antagonists in Mobile Suit Gundam and later becomes one of the protagonists of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. In his final appearance in Char's Counterattack, he assumes leadership of the Neo Zeon movement,...

, a character from the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam
is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes...

. His planned experiment was to put together one or more Gundam model
Gundam model
Gundam Models refers to plastic and non-plastic model kits depicting the mechas, vehicles and characters of the fictional Mobile Suit Gundam universe by Bandai. These kits have become popular among anime fans and model enthusiasts, especially in Japan and in other nearby Asian countries since the...

s in zero gravity.

External links

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