A private mission launched by SpaceX is anticipated to include the first spacewalk by a sole civilian crew.

Early on Tuesday, a SpaceX capsule filled with four private citizens took off on a five-day mission that will see the first spacewalk executed by a crew composed entirely of civilians.

 

At 5:24 a.m. ET, the Polaris Dawn mission blasted out from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre located in Florida.

 

The four crew members will go 870 miles above Earth's surface, the highest orbital altitude attained by humans since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972. Compared to the International Space Station, that is more than three times higher.