SpaceX prepares to send first all-civilian crew into Earth orbit

Gulf Today Report

SpaceX is set to launch four people into space on Wednesday on a three-day mission. For the first time, Aerospace company is due to send into orbit a crew made up entirely of complete novices, without a professional astronaut on board.

A billionaire entrepreneur is set to ride into space this week, strapped inside the capsule of a SpaceX rocketship as the first all-civilian crew launched into Earth orbit.

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As part of an astro-tourist team poised to make history the four passengers are supposed to embody the opening-up of space to everyone, giving the mission its name: Inspiration4.

A billionaire, Jared Isaacman, is behind the project. It was he who chartered the mission, at his own expense, inviting three anonymous people to join him, via a rather original selection process. Each seat has been assigned to represent a specific value.

The "Inspiration4" mission caps a summer that saw billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos cross the final frontier, on Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin spaceships respectively, a few days apart in July.

A new construction surrounds the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Reuters

The crew vehicle is set for blastoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center atop one of Musk's reusable Falcon 9 rockets, with a 24-hour targeted launch window that opens at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) on Wednesday. That window will be narrowed, or possibly altered, a few days before, depending on weather.

SpaceX has already given no fewer than ten astronauts rides to the ISS on behalf of NASA — but this will be the first time taking non-professional astronauts.

Lift-off is scheduled for Wednesday from 8pm Eastern Time (0000 GMT) from launch pad 39A, at NASA's Kennedy Center in Florida, from where the Apollo missions to the Moon took off.