Merritt Island, United States - April 01, 2025 Kennedy Space Center, Florida -A historic mission took flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday night. Against the backdrop of an off-shore band of thunderstorms, four first-time astronauts soared off the pad at Launch Complex 39A onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and headed into a polar orbit. Malta resident Chun Wang funded the orbital polar expedition and flew alongside Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, German arctic robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, and Australian polar guide Eric Philips. Liftoff of the mission, dubbed Fram2, happened at the opening of the launch window at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 UTC). Heading into the launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 60 percent chance for favorable weather at the opening of the window, predicting the thunderstorms that caused some consternation by those watching the launch at the LC-39A Press Site. On Friday, Kiko Dontchev, the vice president of Launch for SpaceX, said they were juggling a similar challenge to launch as they experienced with the Polaris Dawn flight last year. “This mission is a little more challenging than even a normal crew mission when it comes to launch availability,” Dontchev said during a teleconference about the mission on X. The Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission, tail number B1085 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a sixth time. This was the second time this booster launched crew to orbit following the flight of Crew-9 to the International Space Station in September 2024. The Fram2 mission marked the first time that a booster with five previous flights launched an astronaut mission. SpaceX is flying the crew onboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft. This is its fourth trip to space, following the launches of Crew-1, Inspiration4, and Polaris Dawn. The destination of these four astronauts for their 3.5- to 5-day mission takes them on a polar orbit at a 90 degree inclination. This will be the highest inclination flown by humans from the Space Coast. “Interestingly, the closest astronauts have ever come to flying in a true polar orbit were the original Soviet Vostok and Voskhod cosmonauts in the early 1960s – and they only flew to around 65 deg,” Jon Edwards, vice president of Falcon and Dragon at SpaceX, wrote on X. Mikkelsen, an award-winning cinematographer, is responsible for capturing the experience through a variety of cameras throughout the flight. She said it’s a marquee moment for human spaceflight. “We are embarking on an epic expedition to be the first humans in a polar orbit,” she said. During the mission, the crew will conduct a suite of 22 science experiments and technology demonstrations. Those include experiments monitoring glucose regulation, mushroom growth, and the impact of spaceflight on women’s reproductive health.