The daily business briefing: September 16, 2021

SpaceX sends the first all-civilian crew into orbit, FDA staff decline to take a firm position on Pfizer booster, and more

The Inspiration4 mission
The Inspiration4 mission
(Image credit: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

1. SpaceX sends 1st all-tourist crew into orbit

SpaceX on Wednesday launched the first space mission with an all-civilian, all-tourist crew, a milestone in private spaceflight. The company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk used a reusable Falcon 9 rocket to send tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, geoscientist Sian Proctor, aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski, and physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux into orbit. They will spend three days in space before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of payment processor Shift4 Payments, paid an unspecified amount for his spot in the Inspiration4 mission, which took off from the same Cape Canaveral, Florida, launchpad as NASA's Apollo moon missions. Isaacman also donated the other three seats and donated $100 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.