SpaceX launches 4 amateurs on private trip

CAPE CANAVERAL » SpaceX’s first private flight blasted off Wednesday night with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor, the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism.

It was the first time a rocket streaked toward orbit with an all-amateur crew — no professional astronauts.

The Dragon capsule’s two men and two women are looking to spend three days circling the world from an unusually high orbit — 100 miles higher than the International Space Station — before splashing down off the Florida coast this weekend.

Leading the flight is billionaire Jared Isaacman, 38, who made his fortune with a payment-processing company he started in his teens.

Joining Isaacman on the trip dubbed Inspiration4 is Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood cancer survivor; sweepstakes winners Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona.