Jared Isaacman is about to go where no billionaire has gone before. The entrepreneur is making his second trip to space, this time a "longer, more daring and riskier" journey into high-earth orbit that will include a spacewalk, said The New York Times. The journey aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will feature a crew of private-sector astronauts; NASA has nothing to do with the trip.

This is the "most ambitious, and risky, private spaceflight yet," said Scientific American. The Polaris Dawn journey will launch into an "ultrahigh" orbit more than 800 miles high to the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds the planet in order to test the radiation's effect on humans. Later on, it will conduct the first-ever private spacewalk. The overriding aim is to lay the groundwork for Elon Musk's planned trip to Mars.

'Expanding human activity in space'
When it comes to "expanding human activity in space," Polaris Dawn is the "real deal," Eric Berger said at Ars Technica. The flight will "push the ball of exploration forward" thanks to Isaacman, who has spent "hundreds of millions of dollars to fly into space" in order to "expand the window" of who can become an astronaut. The suits that Isaacman will use on the spacewalk are the first generation of cheaper, leaner suits that will make it easier for future explorers to leave their spacecraft. 

Isaacman is "exposing himself to the risks" of testing new technologies in the "unforgiving void of outer space," Jackie Wattles said at CNN. All this with a goal of making humans a "multiplanetary species," which is risky work. "He's not just going for a joyride," said SpaceX consultant Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut. 

'Just getting started'
"In the era of private spaceflight, who gets to be an astronaut?" Briley Lewis said at Popular Science. Fewer than 700 people have ever gone into space, and most of them have been "rigorously trained." 

Private citizens have been buying their way into space since 2001, but it hasn't just been rich people — scientists and cancer survivors have also hitched rides. "Private spaceflight is just getting started," said Lewis.

With deadly blazes sweeping across Brazil and Greece braced for high-risk weather, wildfire season is in full swing. Wildfires not only pose a serious threat to human and animal life but also wreak devastating damage on homes, landscapes and livelihoods. And the economic cost for affected countries and individuals has proven enormous. 

How much do they cost? 
Wildfires cost Europe $4.5 billion in damages last year, reported Bloomberg, but when you include the long-term impacts, those costs spiral. The wildfires that raged across Sicily in 2023 caused more than $66 million of direct damage, said The Guardian. But "damage to agriculture caused by fires and the intense heatwave amounted to about $222 million." The U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee released a report last year suggesting "climate-change-fueled wildfires" cost the U.S. economy up to $893 billion each year, said CNN. 

Costs to homeowners
Beyond the direct costs of rebuilding damaged homes and businesses, wildfires also impact residents in less obvious ways. In California, home insurance premiums have rocketed, said the San Francisco Chronicle, "making an already expensive state even less affordable." Plus, homeowners who have had to "take on a higher insurance premium may have a tougher time selling their home," said CNN. 

Health costs
As fires "become more frequent, that smoke is leading to a public health crisis," said Fast Company. Wildlife smoke "likely contributed to more than 52,000 premature deaths" in California from 2008 to 2018, according to a study published in the Science Advances journal. Those deaths had an "economic impact" of more than $430 billion. 

Wildfire damage has also impacted drinking water. In 2022, a wildfire in northern New Mexico left behind "sludgy ash and charred soil" that contaminated the region's Gallinas River, "threatening the drinking water supply for the city of Las Vegas," said CNN. "You realize how expensive clean water really is and how infrastructure dependent it is," Senator Martin Heinrich, the chair of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee, said to CNN.