SpaceX launches 4 amateurs into Earth orbit

SpaceX's first private flight has blasted off with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor.

It was the first time a rocket streaked toward orbit with an all-amateur crew, with no professional astronauts on board. SpaceX's recycled rocket soared Wednesday night from the same Kennedy Space Center pad used by the company's three previous astronaut flights for NASA.

The Dragon capsule aimed to orbit 100 miles higher than the International Space Station where two men and two women will spend three days circling the world, before splashing down off the coast of Florida.