Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to launch a billionaire astronaut further from Earth than any human has travelled in half a century.

The US space company will fire four astronauts, including ultra-wealthy entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, aboard one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a five-day mission into space.

The Polaris Dawn mission will take the crew as far from Earth as any space flight since the end of the Apollo Moon landing programme in 1972, roughly 745 miles from earth and include a spacewalk by its crew.

The launch comes as SpaceX prepares to send humans back to the Moon for Nasa’s Artemis III mission, scheduled to take place in 2026.

Polaris Dawn is due to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8.38 BST (3.38 local time).

Follow below for live updates on the launch.