SpaceX’s Fram2 mission: First human spaceflight to Polar Orbit set for launch on April 1 | Technology News
On Saturday, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX announced that its maiden polar orbit mission, dubbed Fram2, is scheduled for lift-off on March 31 at 9:46 PM ET (7:16 AM IST on April 1) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Fram2 mission will take four astronauts into polar orbit, also known as low Earth orbit, for the first time in human history.
SpaceX also has three additional launch opportunities within 4.5 hours of the initial launch window and a backup opportunity on April 2.
Teams rolled Falcon 9 and Dragon out to the pad at 39A in Florida ahead of the vehicles going vertical pic.twitter.com/AgbhtUQdhc
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 29, 2025
The Fram2 mission crew consists of Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips. The international crew will be carried into a 90-degree circular orbit, allowing them to fly over both the North and South Poles. During their journey, they are expected to observe natural phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis.
This mission is funded by Wang, an entrepreneur who has financed the project. Mikkelsen is a filmmaker known for her work in photography, while Rogge, a 29-year-old astronaut, will become the first German woman in space. Philips is an Australian polar explorer.
For this mission, SpaceX is using a tried-and-tested Dragon spacecraft, which has been extensively utilised for human space missions such as Crew-1, Inspiration4, and Polaris Dawn.
Fram2 will be a multi-day space mission in which the Dragon spacecraft and its crew will explore Earth from polar orbit, flying over the polar regions. The astronauts will conduct 22 research studies focused on understanding human health in space. Their experiments include taking the first X-ray in space to study muscle and skeletal mass and growing mushrooms in microgravity.
The astronauts will also aim to exit the spacecraft without medical or operational assistance, further studying the implications of both short and long-duration space missions.
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