SpaceX sends the first-ever civilian crew into Earth orbit

REALITY TELEVISION loves small, enclosed worlds; space travel requires them. That these two facts would, some day, come together has long seemed inevitable. The launch of four civilian astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours (in Greenwich Mean Time) of September 16th sealed the deal. It is normal, these days, for space launches to be streamed on the YouTube channel of the space agencies and companies involved. An East Coast prime-time livestream on Netflix’s YouTube channel for the launch of a mission which is the subject of an ongoing documentary series on the streaming service, “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space” is something else. Footage from the mission will be used in a feature-length final episode to the series which will stream later this month.

The Inspiration4 mission was conceived and paid for by Jared Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 Payments. Very rich entrepreneurs going into space has been something of a trend in recent months, with Richard Branson being flown to 85km in a rocketplane built by Virgin Galactic, a company he founded, and Jeff Bezos reaching 107km in a capsule launched by New Shepard, a rocket built by his company, Blue Origin.

Mr Isaacman’s trip is different. It is being undertaken not to show off his own wares but to enjoy the possibilities afforded by someone else’s—specifically those...