SpaceX makes history with 1st all-civilian crew launched into orbit

A SpaceX rocket ship blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, carrying a billionaire e-commerce executive and three less-wealthy private citizens he chose to join him in the first all-civilian crew ever launched on a flight to Earth orbit.

The quartet of amateur space travellers — led by the American founder of Shift4 Payments Inc, Jared Isaacman — left the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., just after 8 p.m. ET. 

A SpaceX webcast of the launch showed Isaacman, 38, and his crewmates — Sian Proctor, 51, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and Chris Sembroski, 42 — strapped into the pressurized cabin of their gleaming white Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, wearing their helmeted black-and-white flight suits.

The capsule roared into the Florida sky perched atop one of the company's reusable two-stage Falcon 9 rockets and fitted with a special observation dome in place of its usual docking hatch.

The flight, with no professional astronauts accompanying SpaceX's paying customers, is expected to last about three days, from liftoff to splashdown in the Atlantic.

It marked the debut flight of SpaceX owner Elon Musk's new orbital tourism business, and a leap ahead of competitors likewise offering rides on rocket ships to customers willing to pay a small fortune for the exhilaration — and bragging rights — of space flight.

Isaacman had forked over an undisclosed — but presumably hefty — sum to fellow billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk to send himself and his three crewmates aloft. Time magazine has put the ticket price for all four seats at $200 million US.