SpaceX to launch Fram2 crewed mission to historic polar orbit

Date:
Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:50:25 +0000

Description:
SpaceX is set to launch its next private human spaceflight mission, Fram2, from Florida on The post SpaceX to launch Fram2 crewed mission to historic polar orbit appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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SpaceX is set to launch its next private human spaceflight mission, Fram2, from Florida on Monday evening. The mission, which will see a collection of civilian scientists, entrepreneurs, and explorers fly onboard Crew Dragon Resilience , will be the first-ever human spaceflight mission to fly to a polar orbit.

Liftoff of Falcon 9 and Resilience is scheduled for Monday, March 31, at 9:46 PM EDT (01:46 UTC on April 1) from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX teams are monitoring launch weather, with backup launch opportunities available at 11:20 PM EDT, 12:53 AM EDT, and 2:26 AM EDT during a 4.5-hour window.



Following launch, Falcon 9s first stage booster will return to Earth and land atop SpaceXs autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Assuming an on-time launch, Fram2 will become the 67th orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2025 and SpaceXs
37th mission of the year.



Fram2s crew and mission

Upon orbital insertion, the crew of Fram2 will become the first humans to
have ever entered polar orbit and the first humans to view Earths poles from space. Before Fram2, the Soviet Voskhod 2 mission in March 1965 marked the closest humans have traveled to a polar orbit, with the Voskhod 3KD capsule being inserted into a 64.8-degree inclination orbit. Falcon 9 is expected to insert Resilience and Fram2 into an orbit inclined 90 degrees.

All four crew members will be flying to space for the first time. Fram2s mission commander is Chun Wang, a Maltese entrepreneur and adventurer who is funding the mission. Wang is a cryptocurrency investor and co-founded the Bitcoin mining pools F2Pool and Stakefish.

The vehicle commander is Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian film director and cinematographer. Mikkelsen specializes in fringe technology for filming in harsh, hazardous environments like Earths poles. She is expected to utilize her skills on the mission to capture unique shots of Earths poles. Mikkelsen also participated in the record-breaking polar circumnavigation mission One More Orbit in 2019. Mikkelsens position as vehicle commander on Fram2 will make her the first European astronaut to command a spacecraft. The Fram2
crew. From left to right: Wang, Rogge, Mikkelsen, and Phillips. (Credit: SpaceX)

Serving as Fram2s pilot is German robotics engineer Rabea Rogge. Born in Berlin, Rogge holds a masters degree in electrical engineering and is currently pursuing a PhD in Norway. As a member of the Swiss Academic Spaceflight Initiative (ARIS), Rogge has led the development of a satellite mission to low-Earth orbit and robotic ocean missions in the Arctic. Rogge will become the first female German astronaut when she launches on Resilience .

Fram2s mission specialist and medical officer is Eric Phillips, an Australian polar explorer and guide who has successfully performed several polar expeditions in both the North and South Poles. Phillips has earned international recognition for his expeditions and co-foundings of the International Polar Guides Association and Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme.

All four crew members have extensive exploration experience in Earths polar regions and bring different skills and expertise to achieve Fram2s mission objectives. The crew will conduct 22 science and research experiments during the four-day mission.

Among these experiments is the SpaceXray study, which will involve taking the first X-rays of humans from space. The Egress study will evaluate the astronauts ability to perform unassisted functional tasks when exiting Dragon following landing. The Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) study will investigate
BFR during exercise, allowing for improved bone and muscle health exercises for long-duration space missions. The Fram2 crew strapped into Resilience during their dress rehearsal on March 30. (Credit: SpaceX)

The MushVroom mission will see the first mushrooms grown in space. A sleep study will be performed using Oura Rings to learn more about astronaut sleep quality in orbit. A Hyperfine MRI device will be used to immediately image
the astronauts brains upon return to Earth to investigate how microgravity affects brain anatomy.

A continuous glucose monitor will monitor glucose regulation in microgravity as part of a study to better understand how SpaceX can provide for future diabetic astronauts. The novel Hormona test and app will be used in a womens health study to investigate how womens reproductive hormones are affected by exposure to microgravity. The Space THAL study will research blood health in microgravity, focusing on anemia and its effects on future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

Lastly, a motion sickness study will characterize and quantify motion
sickness in astronauts, and a bone health study will determine changes to
bone microstructures using advanced imaging. These changes in bone microstructures often lead to bone loss a significant challenge astronauts face during long-duration missions in space. Rollout and vertical Dry dress rehearsal Static fire pic.twitter.com/Ntzp99twOh

Chun (@satofishi) March 30, 2025



These experiments and studies are only a small part of the entire suite of research experiments the crew will perform during their mission. Extensive imagery and video of Earths poles are also expected, with observations of auroral phenomena like the Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE) planned. See Also Fram2 updates SpaceX section NSF store Click here
to join L2

Fram2s name references the Norwegian polar exploration ship Fram , which was used in several North and South Pole expeditions between 1893 and 1912. Fram2 will carry an original piece of Fram s teak deck. Earth recently passed its Vernal Equinox, meaning the South Pole will be shrouded in darkness from orbit.

Fram2s launch

Crew Dragon C207 Resilience will support Fram2 and its all-civilian crew during their mission. Fram2 will mark Resilience s fourth flight to orbit, having previously flown the NASA Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and the private Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions. Polaris Dawn landed on Sept. 10, 2024, giving Resilience a turnaround time of 197 days.

The second operational Crew Dragon capsule after Crew Dragon C206 Endeavour , Resilience, first flew to space in November 2020 for the Crew-1 mission. As
is tradition with all Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first crew to fly in a capsule name it, with the crew of Crew-1 giving Resilience its name. After returning from the ISS, SpaceX modified Resilience for the first private, all-civilian human spaceflight mission, Inspriation4, by replacing its
docking port with a domed glass cupola. Crew Dragon C207 Resilience on LC-39A ahead of launch. (Credit: SpaceX)

Resilience was modified again for the Polaris Dawn mission, during which the first extravehicular activity (EVA) from a Dragon was completed. Without an airlock built into the spacecraft, SpaceX removed the cupola and motorized
the forward hatch for easy opening and closing during the EVAs.

Furthermore, Resilience was equipped with laser interlink communication technologies for use with SpaceXs Starlink internet constellation. For Fram2, the forward hatch has, once again, been removed and replaced with the glass cupola.

The Falcon 9 first-stage booster supporting the mission is B1085, making its sixth flight to space. B1085 previously supported the launch of the Blue
Ghost Mission 1, HAKUTO-R M2, GPS III-7, Starlink Group 6-77, NASA Crew-9,
and Starlink Group 10-5 missions. Following launch and stage separation,
B1085 will land atop A Shortfall of Gravitas, one of SpaceXs two autonomous droneships on the East Coast. A Shortfall of Gravitas will be stationed several hundred kilometers south of the Kennedy Space Center in the Atlantic.

The Fram2 crew arrived in Florida the week before launch and entered quarantine activities shortly after. On March 30, the crew and SpaceX teams completed a full dress rehearsal of launch day activities, ultimately culminating in the successful static fire of Falcon 9 (with no crew onboard). Following the rehearsal and static fire, Falcon 9 and Resilience were
prepared for launch. Falcon 9 and Resilience are rolled to LC-39A ahead of Fram2. (Credit: SpaceX)

The crew will arrive at Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) several hours before launch, where they will don their white pressure suites in a building located adjacent to the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at the pad. Following suit up, the crew will drive up the LC-39A concrete ramp to Falcon 9.

The crew will then scale the black Fixed Service Structure (FSS) tower to the side of Falcon 9. The crew is expected to make final calls to friends and families on the FSS before walking across the crew access arm that connects the FSS to Resilience s side hatch. Once at the end of the arm and within the white room, the crew will sign the white room wall and begin capsule ingress procedures.

Hatch closure is expected to occur before T-2 hours, and pad closeout crews will leave LC-39A shortly after. At T-45:00 minutes, the SpaceX Launch Director will verify that Falcon 9 is go for propellant load. Falcon 9 utilizes super-chilled cryogenic rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants, and to avoid the propellants boiling off within its tanks, SpaceX elects to load propellant in the last minutes of the launch countdown.

Following the go for propellant load, the crew access arm will be retracted away from Dragon at T-42:00 minutes. Then, at T-39:00 minutes, Resilience s launch escape system is armed. At this point in the countdown, if an
emergency that prevented crew egress were to occur, Resilience s launch
escape system would be activated, safely flying the crew away from the pad. Falcon 9 and Dragon on LC-39A before Fram2. (Credit: SpaceX)

At T-35:00 minutes, RP-1 propellant load begins on both Falcon 9 stages, and first-stage LOX loading begins. At T-16:00 minutes, second-stage LOX loading begins.

Engine chill on the nine first-stage Merlin engines begins at T-07:00
minutes, during which small amounts of the cryogenic propellants flow through the first-stage engines to avoid intense thermal shock during ignition. At T-05:00 minutes, Resilience will transition to internal power, and Falcon 9 propellant loading will complete at T-02:00 minutes.

T-01:00 minute will see Falcon 9 enter startup, and the flight computer will be commanded to begin final pre-launch checks. Falcon 9s tanks will also
start to be brought to flight pressures.

At T-00:45 seconds, the SpaceX Launch Director will give the final go for launch, assuming no issues with propellant loading or the range. Then, at T-00:03 seconds, Falcon 9s engine controller will initiate the first stage ignition sequence, and the nine Merlin engines will ignite soon after.

Finally, at T0, Falcon 9, Resilience , and the all-civilian Fram2 mission
will liftoff from LC-39A. Falcon 9 and Dragon launch on the Crew-10 mission
in March 2025. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

Falcon 9 and its crew will experience maximum aerodynamic pressure, or Max Q, at T+00:57 seconds as Falcon 9 flies a southern trajectory out of the Cape. Main engine cutoff (MECO) occurs at T+02:34 minutes, quickly followed by
stage separation at T+02:38 minutes and second stage engine start (SES-1) at T+02:46 minutes.

As the second stage and Resilience power to orbit, first-stage booster B1085 will perform a 30-second boostback burn at T+02:51 minutes to ensure the booster lands in international waters. The booster will then coast for three minutes before igniting its engines for the entry burn at T+06:26 minutes. After another short coast, B1085 will ignite its engines for the landing burn at T+07:47 minutes and land atop A Shortfall of Gravitas at T+08:12 minutes.

Less than a minute later, at T+08:57 minutes, second stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) will occur, and Fram2 will officially become the first human spaceflight mission to orbit Earth in a polar orbit. Resilience will separate from the second stage at T+09:46 minutes, and the opening of the capsules nosecone will be commanded at T+10:34 minutes. Artists impression of Resilience and Fram2 in orbit over one of Earths poles. (Credit: SpaceX)

The Fram2 mission will then begin soon after. Resilience is expected to be inserted into a 430 km orbit inclined at 90 degrees. An exact landing date
has not yet been provided, but the mission is expected to last nearly four days. Following the end of the mission, deorbiting, and reentry, Resilience will become the first Dragon to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

After extensive training and dedication from our entire crew, we are honored to continue the legacy of the Fram name in an exciting era of commercial
space exploration. We are thankful for this opportunity, and we are grateful to SpaceX for making this mission a reality we are excited to be the first crew to view and capture the Earths polar regions from low-Earth orbit and support important research to help advance humanitys capabilities for long-duration space exploration, said Chun Wang, Fram2 mission commander.

(Lead image: Falcon 9 and Resilience atop LC-39A in Florida ahead of the Fram2 mission. Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)



The post SpaceX to launch Fram2 crewed mission to historic polar orbit appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/03/fram2-launch/


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