A SpaceX rocket blasted off Monday night from Florida, the first trip to put humans into an orbit that takes them over both of Earth’s poles.
A spacecraft orbiting over the poles can observe the entire planet as it spins underneath. The path is particularly useful for weather, mapping and spy satellites. With many of these satellites already in polar or near-polar orbit, researchers said that a mission sending humans around the poles was not especially remarkable from a scientific perspective.
Still, the mission, which SpaceX says will last three to five days, captured some attention. It was financed by Chun Wang, an investor who made his fortune in blockchain and cryptocurrency mining.
Mr. Wang paid an undisclosed amount and selected three people to accompany him. During the mission, called Fram2, the four private astronauts are orbiting about 270 miles above Earth in their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, passing over the North and South Poles multiple times a day.
Mr. Wang, 42, was born in Tianjin, China, and became a citizen of Malta in 2023. His spacesuit bears the flag of Malta.
Fram2 said in a release that the launch could “unlock new possibilities for human spaceflight and provide a deeper understanding about our planet and its polar regions.”
Though it could offer some insights, “it’s run of the mill as far as I can tell,” said Dr. Bleddyn Bowen, an associate professor in astropolitics at Durham University in England. Human spaceflights were always seeking new findings, he said, and for launch operators in Florida the mission was more practice in managing a polar launch.
What was more interesting, Dr. Bowen said, was the crew of the mission. “Human spaceflight is a money pit,” he said, adding that flights were often funded by wealthy people who believed in space travel. But there are still questions about whether commercial interest in space travel could sustain, for example, a commercial space station, he said.
“Is this flight really just the start of a very specific kind of sustained demand from the ultra wealthy of the world?” he asked. “Or is it something that’s going to happen a few times and then interest will die out?”
The other crew members are Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian filmmaker; Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Germany; and Eric Philips, an Australian explorer who specializes in expeditions to the polar regions.
Mr. Wang named the mission after the Fram, a Norwegian ship that explored the Arctic in the 19th century.
At the end of the flight, the Dragon spacecraft is expected to splash down off the coast of Southern California, SpaceX said. The company has taken private astronauts into space before, including on a mission last year led by the billionaire Jared Isaacman.
Blue Origin, a rival company owned by Jeff Bezos, has been flying private astronauts on brief suborbital journeys into space since 2021. Its next flight is expected to launch on April 14 with an all-female crew, including the TV journalist Gayle King and the singer Katy Perry.
Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends. More about Isabella Kwai
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