SpaceX launches 4 amateur astronauts into space

SpaceX has successfully launched from Florida in a spacecraft manned only by amateur astronauts, marking a first for the industry as it reached orbit with no professionals on board.

Among the crew of the Inspiration4 mission were two contest winners, a healthcare worker and one of the company's rich donors - an e-commerce executive, which launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in a dragon capsule provided by the aerospace company.

Read more: Blue Origin's first manned flight a success

The quartet was led by financial services firm Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman - the third billionaire to reach orbit.

The crew received six months of intensive training to prepare them for the mission. The ship, however, will be operated autonomously, by SpaceX teams on the ground.

The Dragon capsule can carry as many as seven passengers and is also designed to be able to return large amounts of cargo back to Earth.

It is also the first private aircraft to be able to take people to the International Space Station.

The capsule was bought from SpaceX by Isaacman, who, in return, offered three seats for the mission to people with inspirational stories.

Before the flight, he thanked those who'd made it possible for them to travel "right to the doorstep of an exciting and unexplored frontier, where few have come before and many are about to follow."

"Punch it, SpaceX!" he uttered moments before takeoff.

This mission will be followed by two separate trips taking private backers - a Russian film director and an actress -  to the International Space Station (ISS) in October and shortly after the new year, respectively.

This marks the latest development in the so-called "billionaire space race" involving SpaceX boss Elon Musk, Blue Origin CEO and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson.

Both Bezos and Branson have already completed their first manned missions, but both CEOs went into space with a crew of professional astronauts.

The SpaceX crew is currently on a free-flight in orbit, aiming for a goal of 579 km (360 miles) above the Earth, higher than both the ISS and Hubble Telescope, the company revealed. It is expected to stay up for three days before returning.

29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, a healthcare professional currently working for a Tennessee research hospital where she was treated for bone cancer as a child, is currently the youngest person to have been to space.

Issaacman and Arceneaux are joined by Dr Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, and Chris Sembrowski, a US Army veteran who currently works for Lockheed Martin.

The four crew members will also be performing scientific experiments on board the Dragon capsule.

Read more: Virgin Galactic completes its first fully-manned spaceflight

This mission marks Elon Musk's first private sale for space tourism, a market all three of the major competitors in the billionaire space race are hoping to break into.

Time Magazine estimates the price of the four seats would come to around $200 million.

Watch the full launch here:

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