It will be the first time in 60 years of human space flight that no professional astronaut is aboard a rocket tied to orbit.
SpaceX aimed to bring a billionaire into orbit Wednesday night with its two contest winners and a health worker who survived childhood cancer.
It’s Elon Musk’s first leased passenger flight from SpaceX and a big step in a private company’s space tourism.
“It amazes me, honestly,” SpaceX director Benji Reed said on the eve of the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. “Even right now it gives me goosebumps to talk about it.”
The Pennsylvania businessman who takes the tab – Jared Isaacman – won’t say how much he paid.
After exploding a little after 20:02 local time on Wednesday (00:02 GMT), Isaacman and his fellow passengers will spend three days orbiting the Earth at an unusually high altitude of 575 km (357 miles). ) – 160 km (100 miles) higher than the International Space Station: before splashing off the Florida coast this weekend.
From left, Chris Sembroki, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux sit in the SpaceX Dragon capsule in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, during a general rehearsal for Wednesday’s launch. [File: SpaceX via AP]In July, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin launched their own rockets on board to stimulate ticket sales.
Their flights barely shelled the space and lasted only a few minutes.
Isaacman and others, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital physician’s assistant Hayley Arceneaux, and the winners of the draw, Chris Sembroki, a data engineer, and Sian Proctor, a community university educator, went say on the eve of the release that they had few last-minute concerns.
It will be the first time in 60 years of human space flight that no professional astronaut is aboard a rocket tied to orbit.
The fully automated passenger capsule has already been in orbit: it was used for the second SpaceX astronaut flight for NASA on the space station.
Photographers installed remote cameras near a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sitting at Kennedy Space Center’s 39A launch on September 15 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. [AP Photo/Chris O’Meara]According to Reed, the only significant change in the capsule is the large domed window located at the top instead of the usual space station docking mechanisms.
Isaacman, founder of a payment processing company and an experienced pilot, said SpaceX CEO Musk assured him that “the entire leadership team is focused solely on this mission and trusts a lot.”
He added: “Obviously, that also inspires a lot of confidence in us.”
Musk flew for the launch, as did hundreds of SpaceX workers and representatives from St Jude Hospital.
Isaacman uses the flight to try to raise $ 200 million for St. Jude, half of which comes from his pockets.
Although NASA has no role in the journey, its managers and astronauts are rooting in flight, called Inspiration4.
“For me, the more people involved, whether private or government, the better,” said NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is nearing the end of his six-month space stay.