The first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth traveled nearly six times around the planet during the mission of Elon Musk‘s company, SpaceX. 

The four-person crew aboard the Crew Dragon space capsule made history Wednesday evening when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

“The @Inspiration4x crew is healthy,...

The first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth traveled nearly six times around the planet during the mission of Elon Musk ‘s company, SpaceX. 

The four-person crew aboard the Crew Dragon space capsule made history Wednesday evening when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

“The @Inspiration4x crew is healthy, happy, and resting comfortably,” SpaceX said on Twitter on Thursday.

SpaceX launched four civilians into orbit Wednesday, as Elon Musk looks to cement the company’s position as a leading space enterprise. The Inspiration4 mission plans to place the crew in orbit for about three days and then return them to Earth. Photo: Thom Baur/Reuters

The Inspiration4 mission is made up of Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant; Jared Isaacman, a billionaire businessman who is also the crew’s commander; Chris Sembroski, an aerospace engineer; and Sian Proctor, a geoscientist. 

The team did scientific research and ate before going to bed, the aerospace company said.

Mr. Isaacman placed two sports bets, including $4,000 on the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl, according to BetMGM, a partnership between MGM Resorts International and Entain Holdings. The Inspiration4 mission and BetMGM will donate $25,000 each to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—part of the charitable component of the flight. 

“After the crew wakes up today, they will conduct additional research and get their first look out of Dragon’s cupola!” SpaceX added on Twitter. The cupola is a protruding, dome-shaped window that gives the crew a unique view of the surroundings. SpaceX tweeted a video of the cupola and the Earth in the background after the launch.

At a height of around 360 miles above Earth, the crew is in one of the deepest orbits Americans have reached in more than a decade—higher than the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, according to SpaceX.

The crew will travel around the Earth at around 17,000 miles an hour. Around three days after Wednesday’s liftoff, their capsule is expected to return off the Florida coast.

On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Musk took to social media to say he had spoken to the crew. “All is well,” he said. Mr. Musk added that missions including Inspiration4 were designed not only to help advance spaceflight but to show that anyone can go into orbit and space.

The other objective for the mission includes supporting awareness about childhood cancer and raising $200 million for St. Jude. Ms. Arceneaux, the physician assistant on the mission, had osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, as a child, and was treated at St. Jude with chemotherapy and a limb-saving surgery. She now works at the facility with leukemia and lymphoma patients.

A five-part Netflix documentary series, “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space,” is closely following the crew, with episodes broadcast soon after the real-time events. Four episodes have already aired; the fifth is scheduled for Sept. 30.