According to PANews, SpaceX announced on Monday that it will execute the first human polar orbit mission by the end of this year. The private spaceflight mission, led by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Chun Wang, will include three other members: a polar explorer, a robotics expert, and a film producer. Chun Wang is known as the co-founder of F2Pool.
The mission, named 'Fram2' after the Norwegian exploration ship 'Fram,' will launch from SpaceX's Florida site aboard the 'Endurance' Dragon spacecraft. The mission will traverse the polar corridor, flying directly over the North and South Poles. Unlike previous missions, the spacecraft will not dock with the International Space Station (ISS) but will orbit Earth independently. To optimize lighting conditions, the three-to-five-day mission is scheduled to fly over Antarctica around the Southern Hemisphere's summer solstice. The spacecraft will be equipped with a dome cabin for photography.
This mission marks SpaceX's third free-flying crewed Dragon spacecraft mission, following the 'Inspiration4' mission in 2021 and the upcoming 'Polaris Dawn' mission set to launch later this month.