Bitcoin investor buys an entire SpaceX flight for the ultimate polar adventure

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A bitcoin investor who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers blasted off Monday night on the first rocket ride to carry people over the North and South poles.Chun Wang, a Chinese-born entrepreneur, hurtled into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket steered southward over the Atlantic, putting the space tourists on a path never flown before in 64 years of human spaceflight.Wang won’t say how much he paid Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the 3 ½-day ultimate polar adventure. The first leg of their flight — from Florida to the South Pole — took barely a half-hour. From the targeted altitude of some 270 miles (440 kilometers), their fully automated capsule will circle the globe in roughly 1 ½ hours including 46 minutes to fly from pole to pole.“Enjoy the views of the poles. Send us some pictures,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the capsule reached orbit.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a commercial crew of four lifts off fr...