SpaceX launches first-of-its kind tourism mission around Earth’s poles | CNN (2025)

Mission commander and cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang and his three crewmates — Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge and Eric Philips — are now safely in orbit, tucked inside their 13-food-wide SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The group is expected to handle more than 20 science experiments and research studies during their time in space, most of which focus on their health and response to the disorienting environment of microgravity.

All told, the Fram2 crew will spend three to five days in space. They’ll try to capture unique footage from their windows as they lap the planet end-to-end, passing over Earth’s poles for the first time in human spaceflight history.

SpaceX and Fram2 are expected to share updates on social media. The mission will conclude with a splashdown landing off the coast of California.

The Fram in March, 1895.

As the first human spaceflight to enter a polar orbit, Chun Wang and his crewmates picked the name Fram2 to pay homage to Fram — the Norweigan ship built in 1892 that carried a few key polar excursions that helped map the region’s treacherous terrain.

And the moniker continues a fairly extensive tradition in history of spaceflight, often referred to as the “final frontier,” which pays homage to polar exploration.

Here are some examples:

Adding to the hodgepodge mix of produce that’s been grown on the International Space Station, the Fram2 crew will attempt to grow some of the first mushrooms in space.

Dr. Flávia Fayet-Moore, the mushroom project’s principal Investigator, told CNN by email that the project will “test whether oyster mushrooms can self-fruit and colonize in space, providing a scalable, resilient food source for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.”

Though the fungus grows quickly — doubling in size daily — the Fram2 crew won’t harvest or eat the mushrooms in orbit.

“Anything grown in space needs to be tested for food safety prior to being consumed by the crew. We would have to demonstrate proper controls on future flights before this could be approved!” Fayet-Moore said.

The aurora borealis, left, alongside a rare aurora-like phenomenon named STEVE, in Northumberland, England, in. November 2023.

Fram2 will aim to take the dazzling experience of witnessing the northern lights to space.

Perhaps the piece of research that most hinges on Fram2’s chosen orbital path, SolarMaX — as the project is called — will focus on aurora-like shows such as Steve, a light phenomenon that was only named in 2016 after an effort to document the phenomenon by citizen scientists in Canada.

Filmmaker and Fram2 crewmember Jannicke Mikkelsen said she will use her camera equipment to capture the colorful light displays while in space.

And people on Earth are invited to lend their own observations.

“Anyone can join. Where you go outside, if there is aurora where you live … you will take a photo of the aurora at the same time as we on the Fram2 flight fly over the aurora,” she said.

Dr. Eric Donovan, an aurora and Steve expert with the University of Calgary’s department of physics and astronomy, told CNN that the prospect of gathering a new database of observations is invigorating.

It’s not often that people in orbit get to dedicate extensive time to documenting the phenomena.

“That’s one of the things that maybe is a good thing in self-funded spaceflight: because it’s self-funded, you can do whatever you want,” Donovan said.

In this undated handout photo, Fram2 crew members Jannicke Mikkelsen and Rabea Rogge conduct training and research for the mission.

A British tech startup, Hormona, sent urine test strips with Mikkelsen and Rogge, the female crew members aboard Fram2.

The goal?

To close “the gender data gap that exists in medicine,” Jasmine Tagesson, Hormona’s chief operating officer and cofounder, told CNN.

Only about 15% of the more than 700 people who have traveled to space have been women, limiting how much research has been collected about their experiences.

Hormona is currently running pilot tests of its products, according to Tagesson and Karolina Löfqvist, Hormona CEO and cofounder.

But Mikkelsen and Rogge will use Hormona’s test strips tucked inside diapers they will wear in orbit. (SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule does have a commode designed for use in microgravity, but astronauts also sometimes wear special undergarments.)

Dr. Jerilynn Prior, a professor of medicine specializing in endocrinology at the University of British Columbia, who is not involved in the Hormona research, told CNN that urine analysis is not a perfect method for testing hormone levels because the metabolic process can alter results.

But such in-space hormone research could yield interesting findings, Prior noted.

“I would not expect that ovulation would be normal for those women who are in space,” Prior said via email.

“At the very least, the stressors involved would likely shorten the luteal phase,” she said, referring to the stretch of time after ovulation and before the start of a woman’s menstruation.

Among the health-related investigations that the Fram2 crew will take on is a look at space adaptation syndrome — a potentially debilitating form of motion sickness that has affected more than 60% of astronauts.

The nausea can set in almost immediately after reaching orbit, where astronauts remain weightless, and can take days to dissipate, a troubling proposition for short-term spaceflights such as Fram2.

“It could impact their ability to perform as well as they otherwise would,” said Torin Clark, an associate professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, who is leading the motion sickness research.

Astronauts experiencing extreme nausea may inject themselves with anti-motion sickness drugs, but the medications can leave them tired and groggy for hours, potentially affecting how well they can use their short time in space.

The Fram2 crew — if they’re feeling up to it — will even try to induce motion sickness by conducting routine head tilts. They’ll then fill out surveys to describe the sensation.

Clark also led similar research during the Polaris Dawn mission. He noted that half of the crew experienced symptoms of space adaptation syndrome during that journey.

The goal with expanding data collection on this flight, he said, is to better understand the ailment — perhaps leading to superior treatments.

Oura Rings in San Francisco, in June 2024.

Among all the weirdness of experiencing life without gravity is the challenge of getting a good night’s sleep.

A challenge exacerbated by the fact that there is not really a “night” in Earth orbit.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a neurologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, is part of a team collecting data about astronauts’ sleep patterns in collaboration with Oura Ring, which developed a wellness-tracking device that can be worn on a finger. The work will build on extensive research NASA has conducted with its astronauts on the ISS.

“I certainly think that REM (sleep) is going to be disrupted,” as well as certain deep sleep phases, in the Fram2 crew, Rosenberg told CNN.

There are a couple reasons why: “One, your body isn’t used to being in microgravity. And so for that reason, it probably is challenging for it to get comfortable at first,” Rosenberg said. “The second reason is that constant bombardment of visual stimuli from the orbit. A day in orbit is 90 minutes, and so that circadian dysregulation is definitely going to play a role with how you’re able to sleep.”

The “day” Rosenberg refers to is how often astronauts experience a sunrise and sunset. From the vantage point inside a space capsule whisking around in Earth’s orbit, the phenomenon can occur more than a dozen times in a 24-hour period.

Jared Isaacman peeks out of the SpaceX Dragon capsule during first commercial spacewalk on September 12, 2024.

Living up to its name, SpaceX’s 2021 Inspiration4 mission prompted billionaire Chun Wang to hash out his own self-funded trip to space.

Inspiration4 was the brainchild of Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of Shift4 payments who is now President Donald Trump’s nominee to run NASA.

Isaacman tapped Hayley Arceneux, a childhood cancer survivor and St. Jude physician assistant; Sian Procotor, a geologist and community college teacher with a PhD; and Chris Sembroski, an engineer and lifelong space fan who claimed his seat through an online raffle.

They crew of entirely first-time space fliers spent three days in orbit.

Isaacman then followed up Inspiration4 with Polaris Dawn, a flight he led last summer that flew into the radiation belts and included the first-ever commercial spacewalk. (Two SpaceX engineers and an Air Force veteran joined him for that mission.)

Now Fram2, will build on both Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn, said Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, during a virtual event on Friday.

“From a crew training perspective, we’ve really started to refine how we train for folks that have no traditional background in spaceflight to get ready for a mission,” he said.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, prior to her flight aboard Vostok 6, in 1963.

While there are plenty of satellites orbiting around the Earth’s polar regions, humans have not flown such a flight path.

That means the poles have been difficult to observe with human eyes from space.

The frigid caps of our home planet are invisible to humans on board the International Space Station, for example, which orbits near Earth’s equatorial line.

Decades ago, however, there was another crewed mission that ventured closer than the others: a Soviet spaceflight called Vostok 6 in 1963.

However, Vostok 6 was flown at a 65-degree inclination, whereas Fram2 will aim for a 90-degree orientation, meaning it will fly perfectly perpendicular to the equator.

The nose cone, or the white cap that sits atop the gumdrop-shaped Crew Dragon capsule, just swung open.

On most SpaceX flights for astronauts, the nose cone would swing open to reveal docking hardware that allows the vehicle to latch onto the International Space Station.

But for this mission, the Fram2 crew will spend a few days free-flying through space. So the docking hardware was replaced with a large window — called a cupola.

A SpaceX mission controler just announced: “orbit insertion nominal.”

That’s aerospace parlance for a smooth flight, confirming that the four Fram2 passengers are on the way to accomplishing their unique goal for this mission: passing directly over Earth’s poles from space.

“We’re honored to deliver you safely to your polar orbit. Enjoy the views of the poles, send to some pictures, and our hearts will be … with you as you go over the poles, have a great flight,” one mission controller told the crew.

The crew on board the spacecraft as they reach zero g.

SpaceX just confirmed the single engine that power the upper segment of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has quit firing — just as expected.

Now that the rocket has spent its fuel, Crew Dragon is now officially traveling at orbital speeds. The spacecraft is expected to begin free-flying soon, using only its onboard thrusters to maneuver through space.

The booster lands on the drone ship.

The bottom portion of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket just made a safe landing on the company’s droneship, called A Shortfall of Gravitas.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft and four Fram2 passengers are now being propelled by the rocket’s upper stage.

Every astronaut launch needs a Zero G indicator — a title that’s been held by a variety of items, including a sequined dinosaur and a “baby Yoda” plush.

The small toys serve a practical purpose: The Zero G indicator is the only object not strapped down or tethered to the walls of a spacecraft after launch.

So the tiny, cushy object will be the first thing to float freely in the cabin of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

In short: It serves as the first surefire sign that the crew is experiencing weightlessness.

On social media, Wang suggested the Fram2 crew brought a bear. If true, that’s a slightly less lighthearted selection than is typical: According to Wang’s post, the bear is meant to refer to a bear market — or a significant slump in stock value that could be a sign of economic downturn.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just hit Main Engine Cutoff, or MECO.

That means the bottom, first-stage booster of the rocket has burned through most of its fuel. It will now head back for landing as the Crew Dragon capsule continues to space.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon launches on Monday, March 31.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four Fram2 crewmembers is headed skyward, riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

The bottom portion of the rocket is set to fire for about 2.5 minutes before detaching and heading back for landing.

Meanwhile, the upper segment — or “stage” — of the Falcon 9 will fire up its engine, which is optimized for firing in the vacuum of space. It will continue propelling the Crew Dragon capsule faster until it hits orbital speeds, or more than 17,500 miles per hour.

In this undated handout photo, Fram2 crew member Eric Philips participates in training.

The group began training for the Fram2 mission last year, and the preparations have included sequestering in “harsh environments” in Alaska as well as training at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

“We have an untraditional mission,” Fram2’s Jannicke Mikkelsen said Friday. “We’re not your typical NASA astronauts. …We’ve gone from nothing to being certified astronauts to fly.”

It should be noted, however, that there is no formal certification a person must recieve in order to travel to space.

US regulators are actually barred from requiring any sort of license or formal approval — part of an effort to avoid bogging down the young space startup community with regulations.

“In most cases, the FAA is explicitly prohibited from issuing regulations to protect the health and safety of humans aboard commercial spacecraft,” reads one synopsis on the legal framework from the Congressional Research Service.

Instead, current law “takes an informed consent approach.”

That means rocket and spacecraft operators that want to fly tourists “must notify spaceflight participants (i.e., occupants who are neither government astronauts nor crew employed by the operator) about the risks of launch and reentry and inform them in writing that the U.S. government has not certified their spacecraft as safe,” the document states.

To be clear, however, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon does have certification from NASA to fly the agency’s astronauts, and Dragon capsules have completed more than a dozen successful crewed missions since 2020.

The SAOCOM 1B earth observation satellite launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in August 2020.

Launching a group of people — or satellites — on an orbital path that circumnavigates the North and South poles is no small task.

And it’s rarely done from Florida: East Coast launch sites are ideal for missions that travel directly eastward, because Earth’s rotation can give rockets flying that direction a significant natural boost.

But Fram2 will have to launch southward.

Such a trajectory will require the rocket to expend massive amounts of power — resulting in “a significant loss of performance for that launch vehicle in terms of how much mass it can put into orbit,” said Dr. Craig Kluever, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri.

SpaceX has flown satellites into polar orbit from Florida before, using a dogleg maneuver that required SpaceX’s Flacon 9 rocket to fly eastward over the Atlantic Ocean before veering sharply to the south.

Each crewed SpaceX flight has a designated “abort corridor,” or a stretch of the flight path during which SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, carrying astronauts, may have to eject itself away from a malfunctioning rocket in an emergency situation.

While most astronaut flights travel out over the Atlantic and have abort corridors that end near Ireland, the Fram2 crew will instead travel south — passing over populated areas shortly after launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches.

If an in-flight emergency abort is required later in the flight path, however, Edwards said SpaceX will “have to rely on the Coast Guard or our military assets to get there as fast as possible.”

SpaceX had to obtain a modified launch license from the FAA in order to carry out this mission, which “involved a safety evaluation of the proposed operational changes including the contingency abort scenarios,” according to the agency.