"Inspiration4": For the first time, four laypeople started out into space alone

For the first time, four laypeople went on a space excursion lasting several days into orbit.

The "Dragon" capsule chartered from the space company SpaceX by 38-year-old US billionaire Jared Isaacman was launched on Wednesday evening with the help of a "Falcon 9" rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida.

SpaceX speaks of the "first mission to orbit the earth with only laypersons" - there is no trained professional astronaut on board, the capsule flies largely automatically.

The "Dragon" with Isaacman and three fellow travelers on board is supposed to orbit the earth for around three days.

At around 580 kilometers above the earth, the capsule should fly even higher than the International Space Station (ISS) and orbit the earth at around 30,000 kilometers per hour every 90 minutes.

The mission called “Inspiration4”, which is also being documented on the “Netflix” streaming service, aims to collect donations for a children's hospital in the US state of Tennessee, among other things.

The four all-day trippers should also carry out scientific experiments.

In July, the British billionaire Richard Branson and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos flew into space with their private space companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Orgin. SpaceX has already brought ten astronauts to the ISS space station on behalf of the US space agency NASA, but has not yet transported any space tourists. The current mission goes much further than the flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Orgin, where the passengers were only a few minutes in space.