Live updates: SpaceX set to launch Inspiration4 flight of all-civilian crew

Live updates: SpaceX set to launch Inspiration4 flight of all-civilian crew

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — If all goes according to plan, SpaceX on Wednesday will launch the so-called Inspiration4 space flight, which will usher in a new era of human space exploration.

It is yet another sign of the growth of the commercial space industry and the rapid erosion of governments’ long-held monopoly on spaceflight.

While the rocket will blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here, the space agency that put men on the moon and helped build a space station that has orbited Earth for two decades won’t be involved in what will be the first fully commercial spaceflight to orbit the earth.