SpaceX flight launches 4 space tourists into first-ever polar orbit
A bitcoin investor who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers blasted off Monday night on the first rocket ride to carry people over the North and South poles.
Chun Wang, a Chinese-born entrepreneur, hurtled into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket steered southward over the Atlantic, putting the space tourists on a path never flown before in 64 years of human spaceflight.
Wang won’t say how much he paid Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the 3 ½-day ultimate polar adventure.
The first leg of their flight—from Florida to the South Pole—took barely a half-hour. From the targeted altitude of some 270 miles (440 kilometers), their fully automated capsule will circle the globe in roughly 1 ½ hours including 46 minutes to fly from pole to pole.
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