Kennedy Space Center – SpaceX choked up another human space flight Monday night, but took four civilians on a trip around Earth that has never been done before.
Turning the planet in the polar regions, the crew of the FRAM2 mission climbed on Monday night with the resilience of the crew’s dragons and fired a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC’s launch complex 39-A at 9:46pm
The rocket erupted from the pads as a barrage of thunderstorms illuminated the sky in the distance. The KSC was warned of lightning and hail as the front of a storm where 40 mph winds plowed the space shore, even as the crew sat on Pad’s spacecraft awaiting launch.
But they launched. Arcs south off the east coast of Florida created a unique blue and orange plume with unique blue and orange plumes swirling like jellyfish in the night sky. The trajectory took it over Cuba and then deviated from the Pacific coast of South America.
The Flight bill is Chinese-born Chung Wang from Malta, an entrepreneur who made fortunes with cryptocurrency and an avid adventurer who has visited both the Arctic and Antarctic. What he is paying for hasn’t been announced, but a similar private mission run by Axiom Space, but if you sign with SpaceX for use of the spacecraft, each passenger will be $55 million.
The king’s three crew members are Australian friend and adventurer Eric Phillips, Norway’s Jannick Mikkelsen, and Germany’s Laveer Lodge. Mikkelsen has the role of mission commander and Phillips as pilots.
The FRAM2 mission will take off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon above the Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Ravea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
A long exposure to the FRAM2 mission taking off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon, located above the FALCON 9 rocket from the launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
The FRAM2 mission will take off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon above the Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Ravea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
The FRAM2 mission will take off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon above the Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Ravea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
The FRAM2 mission will take off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon above the Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Ravea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
The FRAM2 FALCON 9 rocket will release exhaust after being fueled before taking off from the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
FRAM2’s SpaceX Falcon 9 will be released on Monday, March 31, 2025 by Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39-A.
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The FRAM2 mission will take off on Monday, March 31, 2025 at SpaceX Dragon above the Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. All Civilian crews include Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikelsen, Eric Philips and Ravea Rogge. Enters the first polar orbit of a human spaceflight mission. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
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FRAM2 is named after the ship Fulham, built in Norway, which was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s to help explorers such as Roaldo Muundsen arrive in the Arctic and Antarctic. The crew brought a small boat together on the trip.
“On behalf of the Falcon team, we are honored to bring you safely to your polar orbit,” he announced members of the SpaceX launch team after Liftoff. “Enjoy the view of Paul. Send us a photo. Our hearts and our hearts, so that you can fly with you across the pole and make a great flight.”
Wang responded succinctly from the space to what was primarily a private lead-up for the launch.
“Cheers,” he said.
Prior to the launch, the king had a conversation with his crew, Phillips.
“Can you believe we’ll fly in less than 42 minutes from here to Antarctica?” he asked.
“Incredible,” replied Phillips.
The trip is expected to last from three to five days, with the Dragon Capsule returning to a splashdown off the coast of California. The crew will be conducting 22 research studies, including obtaining the first X-rays in space.
The first stage booster made its sixth flight, where recovery to droneships is a lack of gravity stationed in the Atlantic.
This was the 26th launch from the Space Coast in 2025. The 25th came just six hours ago as SpaceX sent a Starlink mission from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday afternoon.
It was a launch seen by the King and his crew while passing through Merritt Island on their way to KSC Properties.
“I’m going to see the rocket launch on my way to launch,” Wang posted to X.
This was the fourth flight of Crew Dragon Resilience, which first flew on a Crew 1 mission in 2020, and then flew the Inspiration 4 Flight in 2021 and the Polaris Dawn in 2024.
Instead of the positive hatch used to dock on the International Space Station, the capsule has cupola windows installed to allow better viewing of the crew during the mission.
This mission marks SpaceX’s second human spaceflight, following the launch of Crew-10 at the beginning of March.
Since the DEMO-2 mission in May 2020, the company has now fleeted 66 people in space on 17 missions, on a fleet of four-person crew dragons. It is expected that the fifth crew dragon will fly for the first time this year.
Of the 17 missions, 11 were for NASA’s commercial crew programs, while the other six were for private missions. Only FRAM2, Polaris Dawn, and Inspiration4 are on a trip that did not visit the ISS.
SpaceX is scheduled for at least two crew dragon missions on a private flight to the space station to target Axiom Space in mid-May.
Original issue: March 31, 2025 10:30pm EDT
