Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa's space suit is checked before he and his production assistant Yozo Hirano blast off for ISS from Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their journey aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will take just over six hours, capping a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel.

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