Q&A with Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES

Jared Isaacman, a wealthy businessman and pilot, is chartering a four-seat SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for what will be the first fully commercial, non-government piloted flight to orbit, SpaceX and the entrepreneur announced Monday. The mission will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The launch was the 350th overall orbital launch from Space Launch Complex 40. SpaceX executed liftoff of the Starlink 6-95 mission at 5:18 p.m. EST (2218 UTC).

The U.S. Air Force’s reusable Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth early Sunday with a touchdown at NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a few miles away from where it launched 780 days ago atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.