CNN —SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission kicked off early Tuesday, launching a four-person crew of civilian astronauts into orbit. The company confirmed that the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying the crew reached its peak altitude of 1,400.7 kilometers (870 miles) at 9:19 p.m. The Polaris Dawn mission also marks the farthest any human has journeyed since the final Apollo mission in 1972 — and the farthest into space a woman has ever traveled. The pre-breathe protocol the Polaris Dawn crew is undergoing is entirely unlike what is carried out on the International Space Station. In this screenshot from video, the Polaris Dawn crew sit in the Dragon capsule shortly after launching towards space on Tuesday.

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Persons: CNN —, Jared Isaacman, Scott “ Kidd ” Poteet, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis —, Menon, Poteet, Gillis, Isaacman, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Polaris Dawn crew’s, ” Gillis, “, pressurization, Garrett Reisman Organizations: CNN, SpaceX, Polaris, SpaceX SpaceX, Shift4, US Air Force, NASA, Space Station, Space Locations: —