KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Just days after launching its 10th crew rotation mission with NASA to the International Space Station, SpaceX is ready to launch its next private crew mission from Florida.
SpaceX is targeting an 11:20 p.m. launch on March 31 for Fram2, though backup opportunities will bleed into April 1 at 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m.
Led by Chun Wang, a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur and Maltese citizen, and three of his friends, the historic mission will mark the first time humans fly a polar orbit around Earth, and take the first human X-Ray images in space.
The Fram2 crew completed training this week in California, and early this morning, the Dragon supporting their mission arrived at the hangar at pad 39A in Florida ahead of liftoff next Monday, March 31 pic.twitter.com/yDt8ihYqHI
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 22, 2025
The team will orbit the Earth for three to five days.
Consisting of a team of four coming from six countries, joining Wang on Fram2 are Jannicke Mikkelsen, of Norway, who will serve as vehicle commander; Eric Philips of Australia, the mission specialist; and Germany’s Rabea Rogge, the pilot.
With Fram2′s scheduled launch coming just 17 days after Crew 10, it would mark a record turnaround for human spaceflight from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Fram2 will mark the first time in orbit for all four space travelers. It’s also the first time a sixth-flight Falcon 9 booster will support a crewed launch.
The mission is named after the famed Fram ship which took Norwegian explorers to the Arctic and Antarctic more than a hundred years ago.
Fram2 is the third SpaceX private crew not going to the ISS following Inspiration4 in 2021 and Polaris Dawn last year.
The commander of the first two, Jared Isaacman, who’s now expected to become the next administrator of NASA Damage Runs Deep, wished the crew good luck on X. Jared Isaacman on X: “@SpaceX @framonauts Dragon 207 ‘Resilience’ about to embark on another unique mission. Sending all the best wishes to Fram2 on the approaching adventure.” / X
Dr. Ken Kremer, editor of SpaceUpClose.com, called their mission, ‘unprecedented.’
“We’ll have views of the poles that we’ve never seen before, unique science too, and other things related to polar research,” Kremer said.
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