SpaceX just launched the first-ever human spaceflight to circle Earth over its poles.
The private Fram2 mission lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (March 31) at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 GMT on April 1), sending the Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience” into a polar orbit with a quartet of spaceflight rookies aboard.
Fram2 is commanded Chun Wang of Malta, who is joined by vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen from Norway, pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany, and Australian medical officer and mission specialist Eric Phillips.
The astronauts of SpaceX’s Fram2 mission over Earth’s poles. From left to right: Mission specialist and medical officer Eric Phillips, pilot Rabea Rogge, vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen and mission commander Chun Wang. (Image credit: SpaceX)
A short 2.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster shut down its nine Merlin engines, executed stage separation from the rest of the rocket and performed a deceleration burn to put itself on a trajectory to land on SpaceX’s Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, which happened on schedule about 5.5 minutes later.
