Mission commander Isaacman, a 38-year-old whoвЂ™s keen on adventure, made his fortune from Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company he founded in 2005 that now handles more than $200 billion in retail sales annually. вЂњI think the real test is going to be what happens next.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s putting a lot of this into the hands of the billionaires and millionaires of the world, who can afford either to fly on these flights, or to give seats away on flights that theyвЂ™ve chartered,вЂќ says space historian Matt Shindell of SmithsonianвЂ™s National Air and Space Museum. Jude physician assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, the first person with a prosthesis to fly in space Air Force veteran Chris Sembroski, whose seat was chosen by lottery and internet contest winner Sian Proctor, a geoscientist who was nearly a member of NASAвЂ™s 2009 astronaut class. The Inspiration4 mission commander is billionaire Jared Isaacman, who chartered the SpaceX vehicle for an undisclosed amount. As space becomes ever more commercialized, personal wealth plays a greater role in determining who gets to leave Earth. Some space industry experts say that the bar to entry for spaceflight is just as high as ever-itвЂ™s just that the gatekeepers are changing, along with the criteria used to choose who flies. The theme behind all this messaging is that the flight is paving the way to the stars for the rest of humankind-but is it?

And multiple companies are using Inspiration4 to promote their products. TIME magazine put the crew on the cover of a special issue about вЂњThe New Space Age.вЂќ Axios produced a multi-episode podcast that goes behind the scenes of the mission. Netflix is airing a documentary that covers the mission as it unfolds. Inspiration4 proponents say the mission marks a new era in human spaceflight-the start of an age where the gates to space open up to вЂњordinaryвЂќ fliers. Right: Inspiration4 pilot Sian Proctor waves to the crowd before being driven to the suit up room near the launch pad. ItвЂ™s not going to a destination, none of the participants are government astronauts, nor have they been government astronauts,вЂќ says industry analyst Carissa Christensen, founder of BryceTech. вЂњThis is fascinating because it is a commercial mission on a commercial vehicle. The flight marks the first time since 2009-when space shuttle Atlantis delivered astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope for the final repair mission-that a crewed orbital flight hasnвЂ™t visited a space station.

And later this week, if all goes well, Resilience will splash down off the Florida coast. The crew will gaze at Earth through a custom glass dome that SpaceX recently installed in place of the spacecraftвЂ™s docking port. Resilience previously ferried four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, but this time, instead of docking with the station, the spacecraft will fly to an altitude of roughly 360 miles-some 80 miles higher than the ISS at its highest point. The crew is riding aboard a Dragon capsule named Resilience, and the flight will be entirely automated, allowing passengers with minimal flight experience to climb aboard and enjoy the ride. Now the Inspiration4 crew is orbiting the planet, where they will enjoy three days of weightlessness, do a little science while theyвЂ™re at it, and help raise $200 million for Memphis-based St.

Spacex launches nasa planet-hunting s