SpaceX to launch first manned space mission this year to fly over Earth’s poles

The North American aerospace company announced that the first manned space mission to fly over the Earth’s polar regions will launch from the United States by the end of the year aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The mission, which will depart from Florida, will last three to five days and is called Fram 2, after the Norwegian ship that made the first voyages to the polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic.

The Dragon spacecraft will carry four crew members, all new to spaceflight, led by businessman Chun Wang, one of the pioneers of cryptocurrency (digital money).

Wang will be accompanied by Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, who will command the spacecraft, Australian polar explorer Eric Phillips, the ship’s pilot, and German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, who will be the mission specialist.

According to SpaceX, the Fram2 space mission will be the first manned mission to explore Earth from its polar orbit and fly around the planet’s polar regions.

The four crew members will study phenomena occurring above the Earth’s atmosphere and, in coordination with SpaceX, test the effects of spaceflight on human behavior and the human body, including obtaining the first X-ray images of a human in space.

Such experiments will help “develop the tools needed to prepare humanity for long-term space travel,” explained the company founded by tycoon Elon Musk.

The Dragon spacecraft will be launched into space on a Falcon 9 rocket, also from SpaceX, and will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 425 to 450 kilometers.

The Fram2 mission is SpaceX’s sixth all-private crewed mission.

The company plans to launch Polaris Dawn this month, which will attempt the first private spacewalk.