How It Happened

The Next Astronauts Part I: A Few Ordinary People

Axios space reporter Miriam Kramer traces how a multi-day orbital mission to space without professional astronauts came together in just a matter of weeks.

Kramer takes listeners back to February of 2021, to a press call where SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a stunning announcement.

She brings listeners into her conversations with billionaire benefactor and mission commander Jared Isaacman to learn how he commissioned and designed the mission.

She chronicles how the other three crew members were selected — one by raffle, one by contest, and one as an ambassador for her employer — and how they felt watching the last crewed launch before their own.


Credits: The Next Astronauts is reported and produced by Miriam Kramer, Amy Pedulla, Naomi Shavin, and Alice Wilder. Dan Bobkoff is Executive Producer. Mixing, sound design, and music supervision by Alex Sugiura. Theme music and original score by Michael Hanf. Fact-checking and research by Jacob Knutson. Alison Snyder is a managing editor at Axios and Sara Kehaulani Goo is Executive Editor. Special thanks to Axios co-founders Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz.

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How it Happened is an Axios podcast docu-series featuring instant histories. Each season, Axios reporters bring you behind closed doors to hear the people and decisions shaping the biggest stories of our time.
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