The first humans to orbit over Earth’s north and south poles are sending back images from their spaceflight, and the views are incredible.
SpaceX launched the private Fram2 mission Monday (March 31), sending a crew of four spaceflight rookies into an orbit never before flown by astronauts. The crew is riding aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience in a polar orbit around the planet, on a trajectory that flies Resilience above some of Earth’s most remote regions.
Liftoff of the Fram2 mission occurred Monday at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 GMT on April 1), with a short 10-minute flight to low-Earth orbit where the crew’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle released Resilience to fly under its own power. Now, comfortably in orbit, the Fram2 crew has begun uploading the breathtaking images they’re witnessing from space.
A Falcon 9 rocket launches the SpaceX Fram2 mission into polar orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, March 31, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Fram2 is commanded by Chun Wang of Malta, who funded the mission. Wang is joined by Jannicke Mikkelsen from Norway, flying as vehicle commander, mission pilot Rabea Rogge, from Germany, and mission specialist and medical officer, Australian Eric Phillips.
