SpaceX is set to embark on its inaugural crewed mission, providing a tour of Earth’s poles for four passengers, marking a significant development in space tourism. The mission, named Fram2, is scheduled to launch from a Florida launch pad during a 4.5-hour window beginning at 9:46 p.m. ET on Monday.
The trip is funded by Malta crypto millionaire Chun Wang, who acquired his wealth from bitcoin mining. Wang will be accompanied by three polar scientists he met during making his Earth-based travels: Norwegian film director Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, and Australian explorer Eric Philips. None of the crew has ever experienced flying to space before this mission.
Named after a Norwegian vessel that was instrumental in polar exploration in the early 20th century, Fram2 carries the name Fram. The mission of this flight is to trace the travels of polar explorers while venturing into the domain of space exploration. This flight will fly around Earth’s poles, a feat that has never been achieved by humans in space travel. This trip is more power-consuming than other types of space travel because it necessitates a trajectory that extends much further than the equator, as opposed to the International Space Station, whose orbit is near the equatorial plane.
The intended flight path is to be at a right angle to the equator. This path will allow the crew to pass over both the South and North Poles, which will be a milestone in aviation.
The crew will spend three to five days away in space doing research and offering constructive criticism to scientists. Their bodies will be monitored to find out how they can deal with weightlessness and motion sickness, an illness most astronauts develop. The team will return to Earth following their splashdown, splashing down off the California coast.
Fram2 is a milestone in space tourism, as it comes on the heels of earlier SpaceX ventures such as the 2021 Inspiration4. It is an insult to the growing potential of commercial space exploration and the lofty ambitions for space exploration to farther frontiers from Earth’s orbit.
