The missions will use SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, except for the third, which is to be the "first flight with humans on board" of the new Starship mega-rocket, currently under development by Elon Musk's company.

This announcement represents a new step for the private space exploration sector, SpaceX having clearly positioned itself in the niche of distant exploration, hitherto reserved for government agencies.

The first mission of the three, dubbed "Polaris Dawn," will attempt to reach "the highest Earth orbit ever," flying "higher" than any manned SpaceX mission so far, according to a statement.

In September, businessman Jared Isaacman chartered the Inspiration4 mission, the first in the world to send only civilians into space, without a professional astronaut.

It had traveled to an altitude of 590 km, already further than the International Space Station (ISS).

"Polaris Dawn" will take off from Florida in the "fourth quarter of this year" at the earliest, and is expected to last up to 5 days, according to the release.

A spacewalk, unprecedented for the company, is planned "at an altitude of around 500 kilometers" and should serve as a test for new spacesuits developed by SpaceX, adapted to these extra-vehicular outings.

The mission will have four crew members.

First Jared Isaacmam himself, boss of the financial company Shift4 Payments and experienced pilot, who will again be the commander.

Then pilot Scott Poteet, a former Air Force veteran who worked for several of the billionaire's companies, and two SpaceX employees.

The first, Sarah Gillis, was notably responsible for training the Inspiration4 novices for their space journey.

The second, Anna Menon, worked for NASA for seven years before joining SpaceX.

It is a crew of "experts", a necessary pre-requisite for this very ambitious mission, according to the press release.

The stated objective is thus very different from the Inspiration4 mission, which wanted to demonstrate that space was accessible to everyone, including anonymous people.

The price of these missions, organized as part of a program called the "Polaris program" - named after the polar star - has not been revealed.

But it is probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The manned flight aboard the new Starship rocket will be particularly scrutinized: Starship has indeed been selected by NASA to be the vehicle that will bring astronauts back to the surface of the Moon, in 2025 at the earliest.

Elon Musk has promised that Starship will reach space for the first time this year, with no one on board to begin with.

© 2022 AFP