U.S. crewed mission reaches farthest distance from Earth in 50 decades

SpaceX's Dragon crewed spacecraft has travelled to a distance 1,400 km above Earth -- the farthest humans have traveled since the Apollo program over 50 years ago, SpaceX updated on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

SpaceX launched the new fully-commercial human spaceflight mission on Tuesday, dubbed Polaris Dawn.

The Dragon spacecraft carrying four civilian astronauts lifted off Tuesday morning from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shortly after liftoff, the crew began a two-day pre-breathe protocol in preparation for their spacewalk on Thursday, which is the first-ever commercial spacewalk.

The Dragon spacecraft and the crew have completed six orbits of Earth at 1,400 km. Over the next five hours, Dragon will perform four burns to lower itself to an orbit in preparation for Thursday's spacewalk, according to SpaceX.

The mission is the first human spaceflight for the four-member crew, consisting of Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon.

The crew will also conduct science during their multi-day mission to orbit, including essential health and human performance research for NASA's Human Research Program.

The research will help NASA scientists better understand how exposure to space conditions affects the human body. The crew will test new medical approaches and technology on telemedicine capabilities, gather data on space motion sickness, and better characterize flight-associated injury risks, according to NASA.