Crewed commercial SpaceX mission will traverse the poles like the explorers of old

A new commercial space mission will take off as early as this winter to observe the polar regions from low orbit — the first crewed mission to ever do so. It’s charmingly and anachronistically named Fram2, after the famous icebreaker used by Norwegian national hero Fridtjof Nansen to explore the arctic in the late 19th century.

The mission is led and presumably funded by Chun Wang, an “entrepreneur and adventurer” active in the cryptocurrency space from the early days, now apparently using his ample time and wealth to travel the world and, hopefully, space. (I’ve attempted to contact him to collect some more details.)

His crew would include Norway’s Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australia’s Eric Philips and Germany’s Rabea Rogge (pictured above), all of whom would be making their first trip to orbit.

Fram2 would launch into a polar orbit from Florida in late 2024 (if the date doesn’t slip, always a possibility), after which it will stay up at 425-450 kilometers of altitude for three to five days.

They won’t just be enjoying the view, though. There will be a fair amount of science being done on board, from what they hope will be the first X-rays done in space to observation of “unusual light emissions resembling auroras.”

Fram2 will make for several interesting firsts, and the choice of the arctic — unbelievably difficult to visit in person, but no harder than anywhere else to fly over from orbit — is an interesting one. That and the name suggest that Wang is a big fan of Nansen and other early explorers. (If you’re curious, there’s a fabulous museum in Oslo with the actual ship stood right up in it.)

SpaceX has launched 13 crewed missions to date, and when it launches, Fram2 would be the sixth commercial astronaut mission.