A billionaire entrepreneur, Jared Isaacman, and three other private astronauts have launched into space in a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The development kicked off the five-day Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to test new space suit designs and conduct the first private spacewalk.

Known as Polaris Dawn, the mission is in collaboration between Mr Isaacman and SpaceX, the rocket company led by Elon Musk.

The mission would be taking people and the four nonprofessional astronauts farther from earth than anyone has travelled since the end of NASA’s Apollo moon missions.

The Polaris Dawn mission carries a limited amount of air, food, and other supplies and it marks some milestones for private spaceflight which is the first spacewalk conducted by nonprofessional astronauts.

Aside from Mr Isaacman; the crew consists Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and pilot who is a longtime friend of Mr Isaacman; and two SpaceX employees, Anna Menon, a space operations engineer, and Sarah Gillis, an engineer who oversees astronaut training.

However, the launch has put the spacecraft and crew on an elliptical orbit that comes within 118 miles of the earth’s surface and then swings out to an altitude of 745 miles.

The spacesuits are an evolution of those worn on earlier SpaceX missions and have capabilities like protection against micrometeoroids and temperature controls for the astronauts.

“Unlike an I.S.S. mission, we don’t have the option to delay long in orbit, so we must ensure the forecast is as favorable as possible before we launch,” Mr Isaacman explained.

In 2021, Mr Isaacman led and financed a mission that he named Inspiration4. It was the first trip to orbit without a professional astronaut aboard.

The initiative is the farthest from earth that anyone has travelled since the Apollo moon missions.

The main goal of the spacewalk is to test the spacesuits, which SpaceX developed for the flight.