Elon Musk's SpaceX To Launch 4 Civilians Into Space Today In Its First-Such Mission And Netflix Is Running A Special Livestream

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Inspiration4 rocket is scheduled to launch an all-civilian crew of four into orbit for three days on Wednesday, a mission that will be streamed live on Netflix Inc's NFLX platform.

What Happened: SpaceX said it is targeting a five-hour launch window on Wednesday, starting at 8:02 PM, ET to launch the Inspiration4 rocketship from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The team will return to Earth and land at one of several possible landing sites off the Florida coast three days after liftoff.

The all-civilian crew is led by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc FOUR. 

The other civilians for the round-trip include Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital who is also a childhood cancer survivor, Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer, and Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and entrepreneur.

Netflix Docuseries: The video streaming giant known for popular shows, movies, documentaries and more will “near” live stream the event as part of a docuseries "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space." 

The series will premiere in five parts, which will include a finale that will premiere in late September.

See Also: Virgin Galactic Opens Up Space Flights: Here's How Much It Will Cost To Fly To Space Like Richard Branson

Why It Matters: Musk’s space flight follows fellow billionaires Sir Richard Branson’s space flight aboard Unity 22 from Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE and Amazon.com Inc AMZN founder Jeff Bezos traveling to space on a spaceflight of his venture Blue Origin in July.

Unlike Branson and Blue Origin, which made a dash into space and quickly returned, SpaceX aims to launch the flight in earth’s orbit and complete a three-day traversing space.

“The reason I started SpaceX was to get humanity to Mars. I want to make the dream of space accessible to anyone and ultimately make science fiction, not fiction,” Musk, who also leads electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. NFLX, said in a Netflix trailer posted on the video-streaming company’s YouTube channel.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 0.20% higher at $744.49 on Tuesday.

See Also: Jeff Bezos After Blue Origin Flight Says We Need To Move All Heavy, Polluting Industries To Space

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceX