In the early hours of April 1, SpaceX launched the Fram2 mission, marking another milestone for the company. This private mission is the first to carry commercial astronauts on a polar orbit around Earth. The Fram2 mission lifted off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, with four private astronauts traveling in the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule to explore the polar orbit.
The crew consists of mission commander Chun Wang from Malta, a billionaire and primary financier of Fram2; capsule commander and Norwegian filmmaker Jannike Mikkelsen; pilot Rabea Rogge from Germany; and medical officer Eric Phillips from Australia. Wang expressed gratitude to SpaceX for enabling the continuation of the Fram legacy in the new era of commercial space exploration.
Two and a half minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the Falcon 9 shut down its nine Merlin engines, separated from the rest of the rocket, and set a course for landing on SpaceX’s autonomous drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the second stage continued its journey into low Earth orbit, sending Resilience into independent flight just under 10 minutes after launch. The crew now faces 3 to 5 days above the most remote parts of the planet. During the mission, they will have the opportunity to see the poles in a way no human has ever seen before.
As part of the Fram2 mission, 22 experiments are planned, including the first attempt to grow fungi in microgravity and the first-ever X-ray examination conducted in space. Other studies will focus on the effects of microgravity on the human musculoskeletal system during spaceflight.
Fram2 marks the sixth private spaceflight by SpaceX. The Resilience capsule has now flown on four of them, including Crew-1—SpaceX’s first operational astronaut mission to the ISS—along with Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn, the company’s first and most recent private orbital missions. Additionally, SpaceX recently launched the Crew-10 mission to the ISS, making the gap between these two crewed launches the shortest in the company’s history.
The Fram2 mission is set to conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean—another first, as previous crewed missions have landed off the coast of Florida. SpaceX is shifting the return site to the West Coast to reduce the risk of debris causing injury or property damage upon reentry.
Following landing, the crew will conduct one final experiment by foregoing the usual post-flight medical assistance and mobility support. This will allow researchers to study how astronauts readjust to Earth’s gravity without immediate intervention.
Source: space
