We finally have blast off! Four astronauts leave Earth for private spacewalk after weeks of delays due to bad weather

Following a series of delays due to bad weather, the historic Polaris Dawn has finally blasted off to space. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 10, 2024 During their flight, Mr Isaacman and the rest of the crew will reach an altitude of 870 miles - higher than any crewed mission in more than half a century, since the Apollo era. On X, formerly Twitter, SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted that this mission would be the 'furthest from Earth that humans have been in over half a century' The Polaris Dawn mission had previously faced delays due to a helium leak on the ground and poor weather over the intended splash-down location Roughly ten minutes after launch the main engine cut off and detached, leaving the Dragon capsule to fly with its secondary booster. There were also concerns that today's Polaris Dawn mission could be delayed after Falcon 9 rockets were grounded by the FAA as one exploded during a failed landing SpaceX says that the astronauts will now spend two days in space breathing a high-oxygen gas mixture in a 'pre-breathe' process to prepare for the walk They will reach peak altitude on the first day of the mission when Polaris Dawn will briefly enter the Van Allen belt, where Earth's magnetic field traps extremely dangerous highly-charged particles. Having successfully launched, the Dragon capsule will now orbit Earth as it approaches the highest point of the mission in the Van Allen belt The Polaris Dawn crew will now spend the next two days purging any nitrogen from their blood which could lead to decompression sickness Moving from inside the pressurised capsule to the vacuum of space can cause any dissolved gasses in the bloodstream to expand into bubbles.