Daisuke Enomoto

{{Short description|Japanese businessman}} {{Infobox astronaut | name = Daisuke Enomoto | image = Daisuke Enomoto.jpg | caption = Enomoto in 2006 | type = [[Spaceflight participant]] Candidate | birth_date = {{birth-date and age|April 22, 1971}} | death_date = | birth_place = [[Matsudo, Chiba|Matsudo]], Japan | death_place = | occupation = [[Businessperson|Businessman]] | rank = | selection = 2005 | space_time = | missions = None | insignia = }} {{nihongo|'''Daisuke Enomoto'''|榎本大輔|Enomoto Daisuke|extra=born April 22, 1971, nicknamed ''Dice-K''}} is a Japanese businessman and former [[livedoor]] executive who hoped to become the fourth [[space tourism|space tourist]]. He had trained at [[Star City, Moscow]] in Russia to fly with two members of [[Expedition 14]] on board [[Soyuz TMA-9]], 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]] businesswoman [[Anousheh Ansari]].

Enomoto lodged a [[lawsuit]] against Virginia-based [[Space Adventures]] in which he hoped to reclaim the $21 million he paid the company over a two-year span.<ref name="Klotz">{{cite web |first=Irene |last=Klotz |publisher=[[Yahoo News]] |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080925/sc_nm/us_space_touristscience |title=Grounded space tourist wants $21 million refund |date=2008-11-26 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929231644/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080925/sc_nm/us_space_touristscience |archivedate=September 29, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the lawsuit,<ref name="Cacheris">{{Cite web|last=Cacheris|url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2304862/enomoto-v-space-adventures-ltd/|title=Enomoto v. Space Adventures}}</ref> it was revealed that the "medical reason" was chronic [[kidney stones]].<ref name="BARAKAT">{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_re_us/space_tourism_lawsuit |title=Would-be Japanese space tourist wants $21M back |first=Matthew |last=Barakat |date=2008-09-21 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/2014.09.23-211658/http://www.webcitation.org/1229896449027565 |archivedate=September 23, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Space Adventures claims it advised Enomoto to treat the kidney stones aggressively and when he did not, they had to disqualify him from spaceflight. Enomoto claims that he was misled about the kidney stones issue,<ref name="Cacheris"/> and that the real reason for his disqualification was his refusal to provide additional funds to Space Adventures.<ref name="BARAKAT" />

Enomoto would have been the first ''self-funded'' [[space tourist]] from Japan and Asia (journalist [[Toyohiro Akiyama]] flew on [[Soyuz TM-11]] in 1990, and could be regarded as the first space business traveller). Enomoto's flight would have taken him to the [[International Space Station]] (ISS) after lifting off from the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]] in Kazakhstan, the world's oldest [[spaceport]].

Enomoto made international news when it was revealed that he intended to go into space wearing a [[cosplay|costume]] akin to that of [[Char Aznable]], a character from the [[anime]] series ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]''.<ref name="wired1">{{cite news |last=Kravets |first=David |title=Wannabe Space Tourist Wants $21 Million Back Over Scuttled Mission |work=[[Wired News]] |date=2008-09-24 |url=https://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/09/enomoto_lawsuit |accessdate=2008-10-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021104401/http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/09/enomoto_lawsuit |archivedate=2008-10-21 }}</ref><ref name="wired2">{{cite web |first=Spencer |last=Reiss |title=Space Get Up |publisher=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=October 2008 |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/start.html?pg=18}}</ref> His planned experiment was to put together one or more [[Gundam model]]s in [[zero gravity]].<ref name="wired1" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/enomoto_daisuke.htm Spacefacts biography of Daisuke Enomoto] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060312100343/http://www.dice-k.com/08/index.html Biography of Daisuke Enomoto] on his [https://web.archive.org/web/20060218081328/http://www.dice-k.com/ own web site] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100307171457/http://www.space.com/news/051103_enomoto_adventure.html Space Adventures Announces Next Private Space Explorer] * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5271820.stm Medical defeats 4th space tourist] * [https://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/ff_starcity_enomoto The Space Tourist Who Wasn't]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enomoto, Daisuke}} [[Category:Japanese businesspeople]] [[Category:1971 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Matsudo]]