Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, is preparing to launch four private astronauts into space. This mission is special because the spacecraft will orbit Earth from pole to pole, a path no humans have taken before.

A mission led by a crypto entrepreneur

The space mission is called Fram2, named after a Norwegian ship called "Fram," which helped explore the Arctic in the early 1900s. The leader of this mission is Chun Wang, a businessman from Malta who was born in China. He is very rich and owns a company that mines bitcoin. Wang is paying for this space trip himself.

He and three other people will travel in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which will be launched into space by a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday at 9:47 p.m. EDT (or 1:47 a.m. GMT on Tuesday).

The journey will last between three and five days. During this time, the astronauts will carry out 22 experiments to learn how space travel affects the human body.

An exciting journey into space

On Monday afternoon, the four astronauts were taken to the launch pad in Tesla electric cars. Tesla is another company owned by Elon Musk. While they were on their way, they saw a different Falcon 9 rocket launch into space for another SpaceX mission.

Chun Wang, the leader of the mission, was very excited. He posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “We’re going to watch a rocket launch while on our way to one.”

This is the sixth time SpaceX is sending private astronauts into space. The mission shows that SpaceX is leading in human space travel. It also comes at a time when Musk is becoming more influential, as he is working closely with U.S. President Donald Trump on different government policies.

Who are the crew members?

The Fram2 mission is different from most space missions because it is not supported by any government. The people joining Chun Wang on this trip are:

  • Jannicke Mikkelsen: A film director from Norway who works with virtual reality movies.

  • Rabea Rogge: A scientist from Germany who studies robots and polar regions.

  • Eric Philips: An adventurer from Australia who is famous for skiing in very cold and tough places.

SpaceX’s role in private space travel

The Crew Dragon spacecraft was created with money from NASA to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX is now the leader in private space missions, selling seats on its spacecraft for about $55 million per person. This allows rich individuals and groups to go to space and helps countries improve their space programmes.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is the only private spacecraft that regularly carries people into space. On the other hand, Boeing's Starliner capsule is still being worked on.

The Fram2 mission shows that space travel is no longer just for government space agencies. Now, private people who can pay for it can go to space too.

 

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