Mirror Review
1 April 2025
In a landmark moment for private space exploration, Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched the Fram2 SpaceX mission on Monday 31/03/2025 at 9:47 p.m. EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They send a diverse crew of four into a pioneering polar orbit around Earth.
SpaceX sent the Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ into space on a Falcon 9 rocket. This marks the first time humans have embarked on a crewed flight over both the North and South poles.
The Fram2 SpaceX mission crew comprises:
- Chun Wang: A wealthy Chinese-born bitcoin entrepreneur from Malta, who funded the orbital expedition.
- Jannicke Mikkelsen: A Norwegian cinematographer.
- Rabea Rogge: A German robotics expert specializing in Arctic research.
- Eric Philips: An Australian adventurer and polar guide.
This diverse team’s mission is to conduct a series of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations in the rarely explored polar orbital environment.
The Fram2 mission, named after the historic Norwegian polar exploration vessel, will see the crew conduct 22 experiments. These include:
- Research on the effects of increased radiation exposure in polar orbits.
- Testing of advanced in-space communication systems, utilizing the Starlink network.
- Biomedical studies on the human body’s response to the unique conditions of polar orbit.
- The first attempt to grow mushrooms in space.
- On-orbit X-ray of the human body.
The polar orbit, with its 90-degree inclination, provides full coverage of Earth’s surface This allows for observations of regions and phenomena inaccessible to traditional equatorial orbits. This mission will provide valuable data for future long-duration spaceflights.
According to SpaceX officials, the polar orbit presents unique challenges and opportunities. “This mission allows us to gather critical data on the effects of spaceflight in high-latitude regions, which are essential for future long-duration missions, including those to the Moon and Mars,” stated a SpaceX spokesperson.
According to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, this flight helps us learn how to send people to space more easily, and it opens up space travel to more people. They expect the Fram2 mission to be 3 to 5 days long, ending with a landing in the Pacific Ocean.
