Musk's SpaceX to Launch Private Space Travel as Scheduled Today

Launch site Florida weather favorable
4 civilians only onboard for three-day Earth orbit trip planned

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The SpaceX spacecraft carrying only civilians is expected to launch as scheduled. If this trip succeeds, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will take a significant step forward in his space development efforts.

The Dragon capsule that the Inspiration4 team will board is standing on the launch pad.

SpaceX announced on the 15th (local time) that the 'Inspiration4' launch is scheduled to take place at 8:02 PM (Korean time 9:02 PM), four hours before the launch. The weather at Florida's Kennedy Space Center is clear, posing no issues for the launch.

The launch is confirmed unless any abnormalities are found in the spacecraft.

Inspiration4 is a spaceflight team composed of four civilians without professional astronauts.

The crew embarking on this space journey includes Gerard Isaacman, CEO of the U.S. e-commerce company Shift4 Payments, and three others he selected: a doctor, a professor, and an engineer.

The crew capsule 'Crew Dragon' carrying these astronauts will be launched into space aboard the 'Falcon 9' rocket. The astronauts are expected to explore Earth's orbit for three days.

SpaceX's Inspiration4 differentiates itself from 'Blue Origin,' founded by Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, and 'Virgin Galactic,' led by Richard Branson, chairman of the British Virgin Group, by not having professional astronauts on board.

Unlike the other two companies, whose space experiences lasted only a few minutes, Inspiration4 will orbit Earth for three days.

Musk is also placing great expectations on this launch. He retweeted news about Inspiration4 on his Twitter and requested people to watch the Inspiration4 documentary on the video platform Netflix.