A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule later this year, becoming the first humans to observe ice sheets and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday.
The historic flight, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will be commanded by Chun Wang, a wealthy Bitcoin pioneer who founded f2pool and stakefish, “which are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools and Ethereum staking providers,” the crew’s website says.
“Wang intends to use the mission to highlight the crew’s exploratory spirit, generate a sense of wonder and curiosity in the general public, and highlight how technology can help push the boundaries of Earth exploration and mission research,” SpaceX said on its website.
Wang's crewmates are Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australian adventurer Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge, a German robotics researcher. All four have an interest in extreme polar environments and plan to conduct related research and photography from orbit.
The mission, known as “Fram2” after a Norwegian ship used to explore the Arctic and Antarctic regions, will last three to five days and fly at altitudes between 265 and 280 miles.
“This sounds like a cool, well thought-out mission. Wishing the @framonauts all the best on this epic exploration adventure!” tweeted Jared Isaacman, the billionaire philanthropist who mapped out SpaceX’s first private mission, Inspiration4, and plans to launch a second flight, Polaris Dawn, later this month.
The commercial flights “showcase what commercial missions can achieve thanks to @SpaceX reusability and NASA’s vision with the commercial crew program,” Isaacman said. “They are all just small steps toward unlocking the last great frontier.”
Like the Inspiration4 mission that preceded it, Wang and his crewmates will fly in a Crew Dragon equipped with a transparent dome that will give them a panoramic view of Earth below and deep space beyond.
No astronaut or cosmonaut has ever seen Earth from the vantage point of a polar orbit, inclined 90 degrees to the equator. Such orbits are favored by spy satellites, weather stations and commercial photo-reconnaissance satellites because they fly over the entire planet as it rotates beneath them.
The record for high-inclination manned flight was set in 1963 by the Russian Vostok 6 spacecraft, carrying cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Her spacecraft carried her 65 degrees on either side of the equator over 48 orbits. The American record is shared by four space shuttle missions that flew in orbits inclined 57 degrees to the equator.
The International Space Station never flies beyond 51.6 degrees north and south latitude. NASA planned to launch a space shuttle on a secret military mission around the poles in 1986, but the flight was cancelled in the wake of the Challenger disaster.
“The North and South Poles are invisible to astronauts on the International Space Station, as well as to all previous manned space missions except the Apollo lunar missions, but only from afar,” Fram2’s website says. “This new flight path will open up new possibilities for manned spaceflight.”
SpaceX has launched 13 piloted missions carrying 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and private citizens into orbit on nine NASA flights to the space station, three commercial visits to the laboratory and the Isaacman-chartered Inspiration4 mission.
Isaacman and three crewmates plan to blast off on Aug. 26 on another all-commercial flight, which will feature the first civilian spacewalks. NASA plans to launch its next Crew Dragon flight to the space station around Sept. 24.
