SpaceX launches private astronauts on first crewed polar orbit

On Monday, SpaceX launched the first human spaceflight—a four-person, privately sponsored orbital mission—directly over Earth’s polar regions.

The mission will include a number of experiments, such as taking the first X-ray in space and cultivating mushrooms in microgravity. It is named “Fram2” after the renowned Norwegian ship that was constructed in the 19th century for Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

The study is expected to help future long-term space missions to Mars.

The crew launched aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket at 9:46 pm Monday (0146 GMT Tuesday) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Cheers rang out in the control room as the powerful rocket roared upward, lighting up the night sky with a long, orange plume of flame as the craft began its journey toward Earth’s North and South Poles.

“With the same pioneering spirit as early polar explorers, we aim to bring back new data and knowledge to advance the long-term goals of space exploration,” mission commander Chun Wang said before the launch.

The remaining crew members were chosen by Wang, a Chinese-born Maltese explorer and co-founder of the cryptocurrency businesses f2pool and skatefish: Norwegian film director Jannicke Mikkelsen, mission pilot Rabea Rogge, a German robotics researcher; and Australian polar explorer Eric Philips, mission specialist and medical officer.

For the roughly four-day journey, the team trained for eight months, including a wilderness adventure in Alaska to mimic living in cramped quarters under extreme circumstances.

The crew will try to leave the spacecraft without further medical assistance when they return to Earth as part of a study to determine how well astronauts can carry out routine chores during spaceflight.

Except for the Apollo lunar missions, Earth’s polar regions have remained out of view for astronauts, including those aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Even on Apollo, they did not fly directly over the Earth’s poles.

SpaceX has carried out five private astronaut missions to date — three in collaboration with Axiom Space to the ISS, and two free-flying in Earth orbit.

The first of these was Inspiration4 in 2021, followed by Polaris Dawn, which featured the first spacewalk conducted by private astronauts.

Both free-flying missions were chartered by e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has also been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the next NASA administrator.

Isaacman is also a close associate of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.