SpaceX targets end of month for private astronaut polar orbit mission Fram2

by Richard Tribou

With the drama around the first human spaceflight of the year behind it, SpaceX is back to the business of sending private customers to space.

The Fram2 mission, headed by a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur and three of his friends, is targeting Monday, March 31, for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A.

It would be the second human spaceflight of the year behind the Crew-10 launch for NASA from KSC earlier this month that set up the return of another Crew Dragon on the Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station.

The Crew-9 mission returned astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were left behind on the station last year. This became the center of a national spotlight after President Trump and Elon Musk blamed the Biden Administration for leaving them there for political reasons. In contrast, this next flight has a little less national attention, although it will be the first time humans have flown a polar orbit around the Earth.

SpaceX posted Saturday on X that the Crew Dragon Resilience was already at the KSC hangar, and that the Fram2 crew had completed training in California last week, aiming for liftoff at the end of the month. The first launch window has target liftoffs at 11:20 p.m. March 31, with backups spilling over into April 1 at 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m.

The first-stage booster is making its sixth flight to space, the same one that launched Crew-9 last September. Crew-10 launched on March 14, so a launch coming just 17 days later would mark a record turnaround for human spaceflight from the same pad.

The crew is headed up by Chun Wang, now of Malta, who, in addition to being able to fund the mission, is an avid adventurer. Along for the ride will be fellow adventurers Eric Philips of Australia, Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway, and Rabea Rogge of Germany. Mikkelsen will take the role of mission commander and Philips the role of pilot.

Chun has been updating training progress on his X account, stating: "This morning, we spent over three hours in the Dragon simulator running through the deorbit and splashdown sequence. It was our final simulation at the Hawthorne training center."

“I didn’t quite believe her at the time,” Chun elaborated, reflecting on the words of SpaceX's astronaut operations manager Haley Esparza, “Everything felt strange and unfamiliar. But now, more than a year later, we’ve finally graduated. This place has truly become our home—but now it’s time to say goodbye.”

To date, SpaceX has flown 16 missions and 62 humans so far on its fleet of four Crew Dragon capsules, and was working on adding a fifth.

Crew Dragon Resilience debuted in 2021 for NASA’s Crew-1 mission to the station, but switched roles when it flew billionaire Jared Isaacman on his first trip to space, Inspiration4. The previous mission saw a cupola window installed to allow Isaacman and his crew to enjoy better views during their three-day orbital flight, which became the first time an all-civilian crew flew to space.

For Fram2, however, the cupola will be back.

Named after a ship built in Norway, Fram, that was used by explorers like Roald Amundsen to reach the Arctic and Antarctica, the mission aims to highlight the crew's exploratory spirit and bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to the public, demonstrating how technology can push the boundaries of exploration and conduct research.

The Fram2 mission is set to last three to five days, venturing to an altitude of between 264 to 279 miles. It will leverage insight from space physicists and citizen scientists to study unusual light emissions resembling auroras.

The mission plans to study the green and mauve thermal emissions while conducting research on the effects of spaceflight on the human body, including the first human X-ray images in space.

Additionally, it targets the first Crew Dragon mission to not splash down off the coast of Florida as SpaceX moves recovery operations to the West Coast to better control the return of the propulsion module called the trunk during reentry. Crew-9's splashdown last week may have been the final time a Crew Dragon makes a Florida return.

SpaceX has at least two more Crew Dragon missions planned in 2025, with private company Axiom Space targeting a May liftoff to the International Space Station on its fourth private mission, followed by Crew-11's flight in mid-July to replace Crew-10.

While NASA has not announced the timing of the relief flight for Crew-11, it will likely fall to SpaceX, given Boeing's certification of its Starliner faces several hurdles potentially pushing the first rotational crew mission into 2026.

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