SpaceX is about to launch its first private human spaceflight mission in nearly seven months.
The mission, set to lift off on Monday evening, will use a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft to send four civilians into a polar orbit, in what will be a first for a human spaceflight mission.
Named Fram2 after the ship that helped explorers first reach Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions about 100 years ago, the mission has been funded by Chun Wang, an entrepreneur and adventurer from Malta. Wang, who will be commander of of the flight, will be flying alongside him will be Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australian polar explorer Eric Philips, and German robotics engineer Rabea Rogge. All four crew members have been in training for months and will be traveling to space for the first time.
The mission will last between three and five days, and the crew will spend their time observing Earth’s polar regions from an altitude of up to 280 miles (450 kilometers) — about 30 miles (48 kilometers) higher than the International Space Station (ISS).
They’ll also study the STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), an atmospheric optical phenomenon that appears as a purple and green light ribbon in the night sky, and which is often observed with auroras.
Other tasks will include research on the effects of spaceflight on the human body, and the taking of the first-ever X-ray image of a human in space, a process that could come in useful for long-duration crewed missions to deep space.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will be equipped with a cupola, which will provide the crew with incredible views of Earth and beyond.
The Elon Musk-led spaceflight company last sent a crew of non-professional astronauts to orbit in September 2024 in the Polaris Dawn mission, which involved the first-ever spacewalk taken by a non-professional astronaut.
How to watch
SpaceX will livestream the Fram2 mission, which will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, March 31. Liftoff is currently targeted for 9:46 p.m. ET, though the livestream will begin about an hour beforehand.
You can watch the footage of the launch via SpaceX’s X account.
The launch schedule could change, so be sure to keep an eye on SpaceX’s social media feeds. We will also update here just as soon as we learn of any changes.
