Spacecraft

Maezawa, who recently split up from actress girlfriend Ayame Goriki, 27, has said he plans to take artists on the flight to inspire works based on the experience, in a project he dubbed Dear Moon.

Officials from the aerospace company and NASA breathed sighs of relief following the landing, a highly challenging feat.

The Starliner setback came as Boeing, whose shares dropped 1.6% on the day.

"We were certainly hoping we'd see new phenomena and new processes when we got close to the sun - and we certainly did," Nicola Fox, director of the US space agency's heliophysics division, said.

He also brought a menorah to celebrate Hanukkah, although he was never able to actually light it aboard the spacecraft.

"Despite the fact that Beresheet crashed, hundreds of kids wrote to us saying we inspired them to become engineers and scientists," co-founder Damari said. "If they can dream it, they can do it."

It will now be called Arrokoth instead.