SpaceX’s Fram2 mission is ready for launch on Monday, 31 March.

SpaceX’s Fram2 mission is ready for launch on Monday, 31 March.  The commercial mission will send four rookie astronauts into an orbit never before visited by humans. Fram2 is expected to set a new orbital inclination record for a spacecraft with a human on board and make the first human flight over the Earth’s poles.

SpaceX Fram2: A Record-Setting Mission

Fram2 is the third SpaceX private crewed mission not to go to the International Space Station (ISS), following Inspiration4 in 2021 and Polaris Dawn last year. It is also the sixth private spaceflight for SpaceX’s Dragon, with three Axiom Space missions to the ISS since 2022 included. It will also be the sixth Falcon 9 launch with a crew on board.

This time, SpaceX will use its Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft, which is equipped with a panoramic dome for photography, video and 360-degree views of Earth. This gives hope that we will soon see a series of breathtaking space images from as high as 450 kilometers – about 48 kilometers higher than the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission is named after the famous Fram ship that took Norwegian explorers to the Arctic and Antarctic more than a century ago. It is timed to coincide with the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere for optimal illumination of Antarctica and will last three to five days.

The mission is expected to reach a 90-degree orbit—the highest inclination ever achieved by a manned spacecraft—and fly directly between the poles in 46 minutes.

This would break the 46 hours and 40 minutes record the Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER ultra-long-range business jet achieved during the One More Orbit round-the-world flight in 2019.

What Is Known About The Goals Of The Fram2 Mission?

While the mission is commercial, it won’t just be an expensive tourist excursion.

On Monday, Fram2 shared more information about the mission’s scientific goals. They are all related to long-duration manned missions to deep space.

The crew will conduct 22 research experiments. Among others, it will study an atmospheric optical phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) that looks like purple and green ribbons of light in the night sky and is often observed with auroras.

Other tasks will include investigating the effects of spaceflight and weightlessness on the human body and taking the first-ever X-ray image of a human in space, which could improve doctors’ understanding of medical care in orbit. The crew will also evaluate ways to restrict blood flow, which could reduce the loss of muscle and bone density.

In addition, a Mission MushVroom experiment will attempt to grow mushrooms in microgravity as a potential food source for future missions to Mars.

As part of the mission, the crew will actively interact with researchers and citizen scientists on Earth and answer pre-recorded questions from European students. The answers and other mission updates will be broadcast via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.

Meanwhile, radio amateurs can test their puzzle-solving skills in the Fram2Ham contest by deciphering encrypted images from astronauts in orbit.

Framonauts: Who’s On The Mission Crew?

The crew of SpaceX’s Fram2, which consists of 4 private astronauts from six countries, none of whom are professional astronauts with spaceflight experience, began training in December 2023.

The mission is being funded by Chun Wang, a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur and citizen of Malta. This space flight on Monday will be his 1,000th, including flights in airplanes, helicopters and balloons.

Accompanying him will be filmmaker Jannike Mikkelsen from Norway, who will serve as the crew commander; Eric Phillips, a polar explorer and medical officer from Australia, a mission specialist; and German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, a mission pilot.

The crew will bring four iPad minis, three professional cameras, three laptops and two iPhone Pro Max to record their observations.

“We are grateful for this opportunity, and we are grateful to SpaceX for making this mission a reality – we are excited to be the first crew to view and capture Earth’s polar regions from low Earth orbit and support important research to help expand humanity’s long-term space exploration capabilities,” Wang said in a statement about the updated launch date last Friday.

The commander of the first two, Jared Isaacman, expected to be the next administrator of NASA’s Damage Runs Deep, wished the crew good luck on X.

The Risks For SpaceX’s Fram2 Mission

It is important to note that Fram2 comes with risks to the crew.

According to NASA, all space missions avoid flying through the polar region due to increased polar activity and higher radiation exposure.

This orbit is typically reserved for small satellites and is commonly used by Earth observation satellites and unmanned exploration missions.

For example, the International Space Station (ISS) flies closer to the equator, and astronauts never see the poles.

If successfully launched on Monday, Fram2 will break another record for the fastest deployment between manned launches from the same launch pad, LC-39A. Earlier this month, SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission to the ISS, which stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in orbit due to problems with the Boeing Starliner, was launched from that launch pad.

So How Do I Watch SpaceX’s Fram2 Mission Launch?

SpaceX plans to launch Fram2 at 11:20 p.m. on March 31, though backups will appear at 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m. on April 1.

According to the latest information, Monday’s launch is scheduled for 11:20 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, though the live broadcast will likely begin at least an hour before that. We’ll report back here when more information becomes available.

To watch the live stream of the Fram2 mission launch, you can check the following platforms:

• SpaceX typically streams its launches live on its official website. Visit SpaceX.com for updates and live coverage.
• RocketLaunch.Live, the website provides live streams of rocket launches, including SpaceX missions. You can visit RocketLaunch.Live for the Fram2 mission live stream.
• SpaceX’s official YouTube channel often hosts live streams of launches. You can also check other space-focused channels like NASA Live or Spaceflight Now for coverage.
• SpaceX and related space news accounts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook often provide live updates and links to streams.

Please check for the most recent updates before the launch. We’ll update this page as soon as we learn of any changes.