SpaceX’s Fram2 mission is a historic private spaceflight that launched on March 31, 2025, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience,” marking the first human mission to fly over Earth’s poles in a polar orbit at an altitude of 425-450 kilometers.
Liftoff of Fram2 and the @framonauts! pic.twitter.com/XBL5juCnHQ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 1, 2025
The mission includes four astronauts: Mission Commander Chun Wang, a Maltese cryptocurrency entrepreneur funding the mission; Vehicle Commander Janicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian filmmaker capturing images of the polar regions; Mission Pilot Rabia Roge, a German robotics engineer and the first German woman astronaut; and Mission Specialist Eric Philips, an Australian polar explorer and medical officer.
Spanning four to five days, the mission conducted 22 scientific experiments, such as growing oyster mushrooms in space for the first time, performing X-ray imaging of the human body, studying auroras above the poles, and researching the effects of microgravity. Named “Fram” after the Norwegian polar ship, the mission concluded with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.