Monday's Fram2 Privately Run Orbital Mission

No Earlier Than Monday evening, March 31, at 9:29 PM EDT (also known at Tuesday, April 1, at 0129 UTC), SpaceX will launch the Fram2 mission from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center.  This mission is an entirely private mission that will be the first manned mission to orbit over the north and south poles. This will be the sixth mission for booster B1085 and the fourth for Crew Dragon Resilience (C207).  Space.com does an overview of the mission today, with a little more info on the mission and bio info on the crew.

The crew of Fram2 from left to right: Rabea Rogge, Eric Philips, Chun Wang, and Jannicke Mikkelsen. Image credit: Fram2 on X.

Chun Wang is the mission commander, and the Maltese Cypto-billionaire is the one who came up with the mission concepts, and the crew - as well as the funding.  The crew appears to all be friends who have been working together for at least a few years.  

"I've been interested in space from a very young age … and for the first time, a private person can plan and design their own very personal mission," Wang told CNBC last year. "We are trying to make the door wider and make people feel that everyone can have their own very personal space mission."

Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, last on the right in the photo, will serve as the mission's vehicle commander.  Her specialty is photography and cinematography in difficult environments like the Arctic and the open ocean. 

Mikkelsen has worked with Sir David Attenborough to shoot 360-degree documentaries underwater.
...

"As a filmmaker, I have long dreamed of these possibilities in fiction. Now, step by step, commercial mission by commercial mission, we are turning those dreams into reality," Mikkelsen said in a statement on the Fram2 website.

Rabea Rogge, who will be the mission's pilot, is an engineer and scientist from Berlin who specializes in robotics and polar research. She's currently working on a PhD in marine technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Rogge will make history on Fram2 as the first female German astronaut.

Rogge's mission bio states: "She has always been fascinated by extreme environments, studying them to understand the limits of our world — and to push beyond them. Her work includes leading a satellite mission and researching ocean robotics in the Arctic, reflecting her commitment to advancing technology in both polar regions and space."

Australian polar explorer Eric Phillips will serve as Fram2's mission specialist and medical officer. With a long career as an adventurer and guide, Phillips has led ski expeditions to the North and South Poles.  

Phillips is co-founder and former president of the International Polar Guides Association, as well as co-creator of the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme, a grading and labelling system for extended polar trips. He's written about and produced a number of documentaries on his expeditions.

"Having spent much of my adult life in the polar regions, this is an incredible opportunity to view the Arctic and Antarctica from space — in particular Antarctica, which will be fully lit at this time of year," Phillips said in a statement on the mission website.

This will be the 6th private mission that SpaceX has flown: three have been for Axiom Space - named AX-1 through AX-3 - and all of which flew to the ISS.  They launched another two missions for Polaris Program: the Inspiration4 which launched in September 2021 and was the first all-private orbital spaceflight.  That was followed by last September's Polaris Dawn mission, the first privately conducted spacewalk.   Axiom's AX-4 mission to the ISS is currently set for NET May.