Four people on a private space mission that launched Monday night are going from pole to pole to pole in a first-of-its-kind orbit. The SpaceX mission, which will last three to five days, was financed by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, the New York Times reports. The Fram2 mission on a fully automated SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is the first on an orbit that crosses the North and South poles, which previous human spaceflights have not attempted because of the extra fuel costs involved, reports Scientific American. The capsule takes around 46 minutes to go from pole to pole.
Wang. 42, was born in China but he gained Maltese citizenship in 2023 and he is the first citizen of that country to travel to space, reports the Times of Malta. He hasn't disclosed how much he paid SpaceX for the mission but experts estimate it could be more than $55 million for each seat. The fellow crew members Wang selected are Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, and Eric Philips, a polar explorer from Australia, the AP reports. Mikkelsen is the first Norwegian woman in space and Rogge is the first German woman in space.
The crew will carry out 22 experiments, including the first human X-rays in space, though the polar orbit, which is often traveled by spy and weather satellites, isn't essential for any of them. The only reason for the orbit appears to be "the desire for some novel gimmick," according to Scientific American—but the spacecraft has captured some impressive views of polar regions. (More SpaceX stories.)
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