SpaceX to launch 4 people on first-of-its-kind mission around Earth's polar regions (2025)

SpaceX is set to launch a capsule, carrying four people, over the Earth’s poles - marking the first time humans have flown such a mission.

The group is slated to lift off from a launchpad in Florida during a 4.5-hour window that opens at 9:46 p.m. ET Monday. Malta-based investor Chun Wang is financing the mission, which was dubbed Fram2 after a Norwegian ship that carried key expeditions to the North and South poles around the turn of the 20th century.

Joining him are three polar explorers whom Wang met through his Earth-bound travels: Norwegian film director Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian adventurer Eric Philips. No one on the crew has ever travelled to space.

“My own journey has been shaped by lifelong curiosity and the fascination with pushing boundaries,” Chun said Friday during an audio-only Spaces event on X, the social media platform owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Fram2 stands out because no humans have travelled directly over the Earth’s poles from space, which requires a flight path that’s far more fuel-intensive than chasing orbits closer to the equator.

During the mission, crew members will offer up their own bodies for research. They are expected to give scientists insight into how they react to weightlessness and adapt to motion sickness — a common symptom reported by astronauts.

Fram2 is expected to spend three to five days in space before returning home with a splashdown landing off the coast of California. The Fram2 crew will be involved in a total of 22 science and research experiments.

During the brief jaunt through orbit, the group will attempt to exercise — marking the first time such an experiment has been carried out within the confines of a 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. They’ll complete the exercises wearing restrictive bands designed to control blood flow and enhance the benefits of exercise, according to a news release about the experiment. The Fram2 crew will also attempt to grow mushrooms in space in an effort to further the extensive agricultural research that NASA has conducted on the International Space Station.

What is a polar orbit?

A polar orbit is when a satellite orbits Earth by passing over the North and South Poles. Instead of moving around the equator like many satellites, it travels from top to bottom (north to south) and then back up. This type of orbit allows the satellite to cover the entire planet as Earth rotates beneath it. That’s why polar orbits are used for weather monitoring, mapping, and spying, as they provide a full view of Earth's surface over time.

Polar orbits typically operate at altitudes between 200 to 1,000 km, enabling high-resolution Earth observation and global coverage as the planet rotates beneath the spacecraft. Satellites in these orbits, such as Landsat and NOAA’s GOES series, travel at speeds around 7.5 km/s, completing 15–20 orbits daily. However, launching into polar orbits requires greater fuel since rockets cannot harness Earth’s rotational speed.