What SpaceX's all-civilian launch to orbit means for investors

Space Capital's Chad Anderson and Ark Invest's Sam Korus discuss the first all-civilian space travel with CNBC's Morgan Brennan. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to make history with a launch of four civilians in what would be the first full crew of nonprofessional astronauts to fly to space.

The mission, known as Inspiration4, is scheduled to lift off Wednesday night, with a five-hour window that opens at 8:02 p.m. ET.

The mission is the creation of SpaceX and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. Isaacman purchased the multiday flight from SpaceX for an undisclosed fee, with the goal of raising awareness and funding for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“This is significant and historic because it’s going to be the highest that any humans have gone into orbit since the Hubble [Space Telescope] servicing missions,” SpaceX senior director of human spaceflight Benji Reed told reporters Tuesday. The last Hubble servicing mission was in May 2009. “Another historic part for SpaceX is that this will be the first time that we have three [Dragon capsules] in orbit.”

Isaacman and the Inspiration4 team have worked with SpaceX to train since announcing the flight in February. He noted that the crew on Tuesday met with company leadership — including Musk, who “gave us his assurances again that the entire leadership team is solely focused on this mission.”

Asked how he felt with less than 24 hours to liftoff, Isaacman said he had “no jitters, excited to get going.”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule was developed with heavy investment from NASA, which has flown 10 of its professional astronauts on the spacecraft. While the space agency has comparatively minimal involvement in the Inspiration4 launch, NASA director of commercial spaceflight Phil McAlister told CNBC that private missions were one of the goals set when contributing government funds to SpaceX’s vehicle.

“We are seeing a sort of renaissance in commercial orbital human space transportation,” McAlister said. “For the first time in human history, you can go to a private company and purchase a ticket to orbit. You’ve never been able to do that; historically, you had to go to a government agency.”

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Видео What SpaceX's all-civilian launch to orbit means for investors канала CNBC Television