By Sarah Myers

By Steve Mallen

By Carlos Gonzalez Ortiz

In 2021, the commercial space industry will reach yet another crucial milestone: the first all-civilian flight to space. The Inspiration4 mission operated by SpaceX—and facilitated by a hefty donation from billionaire Jared Isaacman—will launch four civilians on a multi-day journey across low earth orbit. The dual purpose of the venture is to raise funds and awareness for St. Jude´s Children Research Hospital, as well as promote Shift4Payments, a company led and founded by Isaacman.

By Sarah Myers

On Sunday, January 31, a startup named bluShift made history in multiple ways. First, the company is the first to launch a test rocket from the snowy coast of Maine. Even more importantly, bluShift is the first commercial company to launch a rocket using bio-derived solid fuel or fuel made with a renewable, plant-based formula.

By Connor Brennan

In 2014, India became the fourth nation to reach Mars as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO; the Indian equivalent of NASA) successfully put its space probe Mangalyaan into the red planet’s orbit. What’s more, they did it with a budget of only 17 million USD.

Elon Musk and Tom Cruise plan to film a movie in the International Space Station in a new and unexpected form of commercial space.

By Harry Thomas

Starship is more like an ocean liner than a traditional NASA “capsule”. With a massive transparent screen and a steel supporting lattice stretching over its 9-meter diameter and across much of the length of its 19-meter nose cone, Starship will give a panoramic view of the worlds it explores.

By Will Greene

NASA’s venture to allow commercial activity on the ISS starts with Axiom Space.

By Gabo Perez-Alvarez

Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, recently told a group of investors that their nascent Starlink program may branch off and become public.