April 4 (UPI) — SpaceX’s Fram2 mission, the first crewed mission to ever orbit Earth’s North and South poles, is set to Earth on Friday morning.
The Crew Dragon capsule has carried four civilians from four countries on a five-day mission that will be entirely concluded when the craft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast at approximately 9:19 a.m. PDT.
SpaceX successfully launched the private Fram2 Monday night from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four-person crew, mission commander Chun Wang of Malta; vehicle commander Janice Mikkelsen of Norway; pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany and medical officer Eric Phillips of Australia have been traveling in low Earth orbit and have conducted 22 research tests that were intended to help better understand human health in space.
Chun posted to X Wednesday that all four crew members experienced space motion sickness in their first few hours in microgravity and throughout the first day but managed to sleep well and by the second day all had adjusted to their situation.
The crew took the first x-ray in space, tested how human cognition can adapt to the spaceflight environment within the first few hours of reaching space, completed a brain mapping electroencephalography experiment, and took a continuous glucose monitor study to see how fluid shifts in space can affect the readings taken by glucose monitors for diabetics, among other experiments.
“Proud to be able to bring to space some incredible cameras and lenses capturing the first images of the Arctic and Antarctic shot by humans from space,” Fram2 Vehicle Commander and cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen posted to X from space Thursday, “These videos are big in file size and we look [forward] to sharing them with you post-mission splashdown.”
Once back on Earth, the crew also plans to exit the Dragon capsule without any operational or medical assistance, in a final experiment to help researchers judge the ability of astronauts to perform without assistance after a duration in space.
