SpaceX

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the uptick in activity, including launches from private sector companies, will usher in a "whole new era of space activity."

The Inspiration4 crew safely returned to Earth Saturday evening after three days of orbiting the planet. It is the first all-civilian mission to orbit.

On this week's "The Florida Roundup," we talk about how Gov. DeSantis wants to end city and county vaccine mandates and the Florida Standards Assessment; a lawsuit seeks more transparency from the state in releasing COVID-19 data; and an all-civilian space crew.

Marking the latest step in the commercialization of space, the SpaceX mission has launched four civilians, including a billionaire CEO, a physician assistant and a geoscientist.

A crew of four civilians will hitch a ride from SpaceX, spending three days in orbit inside their spaceship.

All of the technologies that are being deployed on this mission can be used for future missions in space.

NASA propellent management Eric Dirschka says the agency doesn't have an issue but is "sensitive to what’s going on in the marketplace and with the COVID in the hospitals. So it could become a problem.”

NASA picked SpaceX for the original contract awarded back in April, only picking one company due to budget constraints.

The Cargo Dragon capsule is carrying dozens of new science experiments to help researchers understand the biological challenges of spaceflight.

It's the third flight of the Crew Dragon capsule since last May, and the first time an American capsule has been reused in decades. There are now more astronauts than beds on the space station.

The new arrivals — representing the U.S., France and Japan — will spend six months at the space station.

The company's third crewed spacecraft took off from Florida early Friday.