The Fram2 astronauts, (from left) Rabea Rogge, Eric Phillips, Chun Wang, and Jannicke Mikkelsen, don spacesuits as they gear up for their historic polar spaceflight. Courtesy: Fram2
Next week, a crew of private astronauts is expected to go where no one has gone before.
Chun Wang, the crypto entrepreneur who purchased the Fram2 mission from SpaceX in August, announced Friday that the three-to-five-day sojourn — the first human spaceflight to fly directly over the Earth’s poles — is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Monday at 11:20 p.m. EDT. Two backup launch windows are available early the following morning.
“We are thankful for this opportunity, and we are grateful to SpaceX for making this mission a reality — we are excited to be the first crew to view and capture the Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit and support important research to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration,” Wang said in a statement accompanying Friday’s updated launch date.
Named after the Norwegian ship Fram that explored the Arctic and Antarctic in the late 19th century, Fram2 aims to carry on the legacy of polar exploration into the space age. The mission’s four international crewmembers will aim to observe Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit for the first time. Flying directly overhead, they will study unexplained green and purple light emissions known as Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancements, or STEVE.
The mission is expected to reach a 90-degree orbit — the highest inclination ever achieved by a crewed spacecraft — flying directly between the poles in as little as 46 minutes. That would break the record of 46 hours and 40 minutes achieved by a Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER ultra-long-range business jet during 2019’s One More Orbit circumnavigation flight. Typically, such an orbit is reserved for small satellites. The International Space Station (ISS), for example, flies closer to the equator, and its occupants never see the poles.
Beyond the firsts, though, the Fram2 crew will take part in 22 experiments announced Monday, from growing mushrooms in microgravity to taking the first X-rays in space. The astronauts will also collaborate with researchers, citizen scientists, students, and other members of the public through projects, competitions, and interviews throughout the mission. They may even be able to observe a total solar eclipse.
“Much like Fridtjof Nansen, who led a groundbreaking logistical operation during his historic Fram expedition in the 1800s, the science and research projects onboard will inform how we prepare for future missions, ultimately helping make space more accessible to us all,” Wang said.
According to Wang, Monday’s spaceflight will be his thousandth, including trips in fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and hot air balloons.
Over the past eight months, crewmembers have completed simulator training on the mission, operations in high gravity, microgravity, and zero gravity, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that will carry them. They also trained for emergency scenarios and even took a wilderness trip to Alaska to get comfortable in close quarters and harsh conditions.
“What an immense privilege to train and fly with SpaceX,” Eric Phillips, an Australian who will serve as Fram2 mission specialist and medical officer, said in a post on X. “The @framonauts are ready for launch.”
Wang, the Fram2 mission commander, will be accompanied by vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway, mission pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany, and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips of Australia. The civilian astronauts each bring expertise in polar exploration or technologies that will be tested during the mission.
“We just finished our last week in Hawthorne [California]!” Rogge wrote on X. “Now on to Cape Canaveral and into quarantine until we lift off on March 31st.”
Now, they are gearing up for launch. Carrying a piece of the original Fram ship deck, a SpaceX Dragon — fitted with a special cupola for viewing the polar wilderness — will launch aboard the firm’s Falcon 9 rocket. The crew will bring with them four iPad minis, three professional cameras, three laptop computers, and two iPhone Pro Max’s to record their observations. As they gather data on STEVE light emissions, they will work with researchers and citizen scientists on the ground to create a freely available database of aurora imagery.
Amateur radio enthusiasts, meanwhile, will be able to test their puzzle skills in the Fram2Ham competition, deciphering scrambled images the spacecraft takes in orbit. Suspended in microgravity, the crew will also answer prerecorded questions from European students. Their responses and other mission updates will be shared via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.
Fram2 on Monday shared more information about the mission’s science goals, all of which relate to long-duration human spaceflight. An experiment called Mission MushVroom, for instance, will attempt to grow mushrooms in microgravity as a potential food source for future Mars missions. The SpaceXray study will capture the first X-ray images of humans in space, which could improve doctors’ understanding of on-orbit medical care. The crew will also gauge ways to restrict blood flow that could reduce muscle and bone density loss.
While their vitals will be monitored throughout the mission, after splashdown, the crew is expected to exit Dragon without medical or operational assistance. According to Fram2, the goal is to study what astronauts can do on their own once they return to solid ground.
SpaceX on Saturday shared photos of the crew and said their ride to space had arrived at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). Fram2 will be the sixth private spaceflight for SpaceX’s Dragon. Previously, the spacecraft flew the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions purchased by President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, as well as three missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for customer Axiom Space. Polaris Dawn notably included the first successful civilian spacewalk.
If it flies Monday, Fram2 would break the record for fastest turnaround between crewed launches from the same pad, LC-39A, which launched the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the ISS earlier this month. That flight facilitated the return of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who spent more than nine months on the orbital laboratory due to issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there.
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared on FLYING.
