On March 31, Elon Musk’s SpaceX carried a private crew of astronauts on a historic flight, Fram2, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, led by crypto entrepreneur Chun Wang, was a groundbreaking flight in which the crew flew a route that no human has ever flown before—a pole-to-pole orbit of the Earth.
Wang, a Maltese businessman and founder of a bitcoin mining startup, was commander of the crew of three private astronauts: Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian filmmaker; German robotics scientist Rabea Rogge; and Eric Philips, an Australian explorer. The flight will take 22 research experiments onboard that cover studies on understanding the effects of space travel and microgravity on human biology.
The four astronauts drove to the launchpad in a convoy of Teslas, named after Musk’s electric car business, while another Falcon 9 rocket flew in a distinct Starlink mission. Wang also documented the ride and shared it on social media with a video of the Falcon 9 rocket shooting off into space as the crew arrived.
The Fram2 mission is SpaceX’s sixth commercial astronaut mission and its 16th total crewed mission aboard the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX’s reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft has been leading the company to the forefront of the private orbital spaceflight industry, an industry that has attracted a growing number of wealthy tourists and governments looking to increase their space-faring capabilities. With Dragon tickets ranging around $55 million per seat, the market has turned towards government-sponsored astronauts for the cachet and to improve the domestic spaceflight experience.
Unlike earlier Crew Dragon missions, Fram2 is wholly funded by itself. Wang and his crew undertake this historic mission without the government’s support. This represents an emerging trend in space exploration through private enterprise, demonstrating how companies such as SpaceX are helping redefine the future of human spaceflight.
