By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-03-31 19:10:09 | Updated at 2025-04-02 07:31:49
1 day ago
SpaceX is set to launch four people to orbit over both the North and South poles on Monday night, marking the first time humans have ever flown such a mission.
Fram2 is scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a four-hour launch window starting at 9:46 p.m., with the crew led by Chinese-born crypto billionaire Chun Wang, 43.
Chun, who lives in Malta, will be joined by vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, of Norway; mission pilot Rabea Rogge, of Germany; and mission medical officer Eric Philips, of Australia; all hand picked by the billionaire to fulfill his ambitions.
“My own journey has been shaped by lifelong curiosity and the fascination with pushing boundaries,” Chun said during a SpaceX event on Friday.
No human has ever traveled directly over the Earth’s poles from space, a trip that requires far more fuel than the usual flight paths that follow closer to the equator.
The Fram2 will aim to circle Earth at a trajectory that is exactly 90-degrees to the equator, giving the passengers a perfect view of the North and South Poles that have remained elusive from even the astronauts on the International Space Station, which flies at about 51.6 degrees.
None of the passengers aboard the Fram2 mission have ever been to space before.
The spacecraft is expected to fly around the globe for three to five days, with the crew set to complete 22 science experiments for researchers back on Earth.
The crew plans to try and capture the rare celestial light shows such as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), which is similar to the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.
Mikkelsen wants people viewing these phenomena to try to synchronize their photographs with hers to get a full view of what they look like on Earth and from space.
“Anyone can join. Where you go outside, if there is an aurora where you live … you will take a photo of the aurora at the same time as we on the Fram2 flight fly over the aurora,” the cinematographer told CNN.
Another experiment will see the crew complete exercise routines wearing restrictive bands designed to control blood flow, which would also mark the first time such an experiment would be carried out inside the 13-foot-wide SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
The crew will also attempt to grow mushrooms during their short stint in space, an effort to help astronauts understand how they might “meet their nutritional needs on long-duration space missions,” according to the Fram2 project.
The passengers’ flight will also be used to study the effects of motion sickness that astronauts experience in the weightlessness of space, as well as how microgravity affects the body.
The trips will end with a splashdown in California, where the crew completed their final training for the mission last week.
