SpaceX's Fram2 launch sends civilian crew into first flight around Earth's poles

Lighting up the night sky, the Falcon 9 initially climbed straight up and then arced over onto a due south trajectory along Florida's east coast before soaring out over the Gulf on a course carrying it above Cuba and Panama toward a polar orbit.

After dropping off the first stage for a successful droneship landing, the rocket's upper stage shut down 10 minutes after liftoff and the Crew Dragon was released to fly on its own. It is expected to fly over the North and South Poles 55 times between Monday night and splashdown Friday in the Pacific Ocean.

"On behalf of the SpaceX team, we're honored to deliver you safely to your polar orbit," radioed Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's former director of space operations and now a senior manager at SpaceX. "Enjoy the views of the poles, send us some pictures. Our hearts and our minds will be flying with you ... Have a great flight."

"My own journey has been shaped by lifelong curiosity and a fascination with pushing boundaries," Chun (pronounced choon) told reporters Friday. "As a kid, I used to stare at a blank white space at the bottom of a world map and wonder what's out there.

"Curiosity eventually took me across the continent and to the southern most tip of Earth in 2021, and also the North Pole in 2023, and now, soon, into space." The flight, he added, "isn't just about going to space. It's about pushing boundaries, sharing knowledge ... and we hope our mission will further inspire later people to do the same."

Chun named the mission after the 19th century sailing ship Fram — "forward" in Norwegian — that carried arctic pioneers to the polar regions in the 1800s. A small piece of Fram's teak decking was carried into space aboard the Crew Dragon.

"Pretty wild to see the Fram adventurers sailing to the poles once again, over 130 years from (the original ship's) christening," SpaceX's launch director radioed the crew. "This time, though, with Starlink. Cheers."

A veteran world traveler, Chun offered the Crew Dragon's three other seats to a trio of explorers he met during a recent polar trip. Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian cinematographer, is the designated vehicle commander, joined by German roboticist Rabea Rogge as the mission pilot.

The fourth member of the crew is Australian Eric Philips, a professional polar tour guide, adventurer and veteran of some 30 trips to the North and South poles. He is serving as the crew's medical officer.

Some might view the crew as seasoned adventurers and now, space tourists. In an interview with CBS News, Mikkelsen made it clear the crew is well qualified, but she said "space tourists" doesn't reflect the extensive training required by SpaceX.

"I wish it was tourism," she said. "But our education has lasted well over a year, so I have never studied so hard for a three-and-a-half-day expedition in my life."

History of private space flights

Chun said he was inspired to book the mission by the example set by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who chartered SpaceX's first two fully commercial missions, and fellow billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who flew to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

"I owe my inspiration to Jared," Chun posted on X. "If it weren't for @yousuckMZ and @rookisaacman taking the first step, I would have never had the courage to book an entire spaceship and bring along three people I had only met once before. I also copied many good practices from his previous missions — hope he doesn't mind."

Isaacman, who owns and flies a Russian fighter jet, is the Trump administration's nominee to serve as NASA's next administrator.

The Fram2 crew during training at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California, manufacturing facility. Left to right: Rabea Rogge, Eric Philips, Jannicke Mikkelsen and Chun Wang, the mission commander. Chun paid SpaceX an undisclosed amount to charter the Crew Dragon for a flight around Earth's poles.

SpaceX

Unlike Isaacman, no one on the Fram2 mission is a licensed pilot. While Blue Origin has launched non-pilot crews to the edge of space in sub-orbital New Shepard flights, no crew has flown to orbit without at least one crew member with aviation expertise or astronaut experience.

SpaceX says Fram2 will help refine training procedures aimed at opening up spaceflight to more and more non-professionals.

"As a roboticist, I'm so hyped about Dragon being an autonomous vehicle which really, I think, shows you how much times are changing in the space sector," Rogge said. "We are really at a crucial point in time where the spacecraft does so many of the tasks itself.

"I think that really spearheads the accessibility to space, right? Because the dream is (to) have many people in space if we want to live and work there as a civilization."

She added, "right now I think the stereotype of an astronaut is that, you know, super, super, super human, medically perfect. But we should really flip this question and be like, OK, how do we design living and working in space for everyone?"