SpaceX Prepares for Historic Fram2 Polar Orbit Mission

The privately funded mission, set to launch March 31, will feature groundbreaking experiments and the first human spaceflight over Earth's polar regions.

• Fram2 will launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a window opening at 9:46 pm EDT on March 31.
• The mission includes four civilian astronauts—Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge, and Eric Philps—who trained for eight months, including wilderness simulations in Alaska.
• Key experiments include the first X-ray taken in space and mushroom cultivation in microgravity, aimed at supporting future long-duration space travel to Mars.
• Fram2 marks the first human orbital flight directly over Earth's polar regions, an area previously unexplored by astronauts in this way.
• The mission will also study astronauts' post-spaceflight capabilities by having the crew attempt to exit the spacecraft without medical assistance upon return.

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