Cape Canaveral, Florida. A billionaire e-commerce executive and three far less wealthy private citizens chosen to join him were launched by Space-X to a height of 585 km (far higher than the ISS and, in fact, the furthest a human has reached since the end of NASA’s Apollo lunar program in 1972—for example, no Soviet cosmonaut has ever reached such a high orbit). The rocket’s first stage, after separating from the upper half of the spacecraft, returned to Earth, landing on “Just read the instructions” (the great Iain M. Banks). “The door is open now, and it’s pretty incredible.” The launcher is a Falcon-9, the shuttle is a Crew Dragon, and the passengers are Jared Isaacman, 38, Sian Proctor, 51, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and Chris Sembroski, 42. The mission lasted three days.
