American tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is hoping to perform the first private spacewalk on Thursday.A US billionaire aiming to perform the first private spacewalk has blasted off from Florida on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a five-day mission.

The spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday and is designed in part to test a new upgraded spacesuit, before the crew of five splash back down off the Florida coast.

The spacecraft, named Resilience, which launched on Tuesday, will also venture farther than anyone since NASA's Apollo programme ended in the 1970s, reaching an orbit altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometres).

The crew will also conduct up to 40 experiments, including inter-satellite laser communication between the spacecraft and Space X's Starlink satellite constellation.

Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost of the flight and is accompanied by a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former United States Air Force pilot. The CEO and founder of the credit card processing company, Shift4, declined to say how much he invested in the flight.

"We're really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector," said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for NASA.

"We're sending you hugs from the ground," Launch Director Frank Messina radioed after the crew reached orbit. "May you make history and come home safely," he added.

Isaacman replied, "We wouldn't be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX and everyone else cheering us on."

The mission, called Polaris Dawn, is the first of th ...