SpaceX made history on Wednesday night, when it launched an all-civilian crew into orbit.
This is the first-ever spaceflight without any professional astronauts on board. The four private citizens on the Inspiration4 mission are Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who paid for the launch and is using it as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude's; Chris Sembroski, an aerospace worker; and Sian Proctor, an educator and trained pilot.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The state of Britain's Armed ForcesThe Explainer Geopolitical unrest and the unreliability of the Trump administration have led to a frantic re-evaluation of the UK's military capabilities
-
Anti-anxiety drug has a not-too-surprising effect on fishUnder the radar The fish act bolder and riskier
-
Sudoku medium: April 21, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodesSpeed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 yearsSpeed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthroughSpeed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
-
TikTok's fate uncertain as weekend deadline loomsSpeed Read The popular app is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday
-
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the billionaire space raceThe Explainer Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon
-
Appeals court kills FCC net neutrality ruleSpeed Read A U.S. appeals court blocked Biden's effort to restore net-neutrality rules
-
Judge rejects Elon Musk's $56B pay package againSpeed Read Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her rejection of the Tesla CEO's unprecedented compensation deal
-
DOJ seeks breakup of Google, ChromeSpeed Read The Justice Department aims to force Google to sell off Chrome and make other changes to rectify its illegal search monopoly
