On Saturday, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX announced that its maiden polar orbit mission, dubbed Fram2, is scheduled for lift-off on March 31 at 9:46 PM ET (7:16 AM IST on April 1) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Fram2 mission will take four astronauts into polar orbit, also known as low Earth orbit, for the first time in human history.
SpaceX also has three additional launch opportunities within 4.5 hours of the initial launch window and a backup opportunity on April 2.
The Fram2 mission crew consists of Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips. The international crew will be carried into a 90-degree circular orbit, allowing them to fly over both the North and South Poles. During their journey, they are expected to observe natural phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis.
This mission is funded by Wang, an entrepreneur who has financed the project. Mikkelsen is a filmmaker known for her work in photography, while Rogge, a 29-year-old astronaut, will become the first German woman in space. Philips is an Australian polar explorer.
For this mission, SpaceX is using a tried-and-tested Dragon spacecraft, which has been extensively utilised for human space missions such as Crew-1, Inspiration4, and Polaris Dawn.
