The mission, called Polaris Dawn, has been more than two years in the making, and funded in part by one of those on board: Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who has previous flown into orbit with SpaceX.
Private-equity firm First Reserve has shifted from large bets in the oil patch to backing midsize providers of specialized services and engineered products to infrastructure operators—and it says a string of profitable exits shows the strategy is working.
