Into Orbit

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Sends Four Civilians Into Historic Polar Orbit

Photo from Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched a Crew Dragon capsule carrying four people into orbit. The groundbreaking mission made human spaceflight history by circling Earth over its poles, officials and news reports said.

The privately funded mission, known as “Fram2,” lifted off from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and placed its all-civilian crew into a low-Earth orbit that took them over both North and South poles, a route no human flight has attempted before. 

Crew members included a mix of explorers and scientists selected for the mission, which blended research and adventure over several days in space. The first stage of Falcon 9 completed its booster separation and return while the Crew Dragon capsule continued into orbit. The crew then planned experiments and observations from the vantage point.

Overall, the flight showed the expanding commercial human spaceflight sector and SpaceX’s role in carrying private crews outside the Earth’s atmosphere.