Spacex launched on Monday the first manned mission to directly fly over the terrestrial polar regions, in a private mission with a crew of four astronauts.
The mission, called Fram2, as a famous Norwegian vessel of the nineteenth century for expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, must last for three to five days.
The night take -off of a powerful Falcon 9 rocket, from Elon Musk’s company, received cheers in the flight control room while beginning his journey to the north and southern poles of the earth.
The crew departed at 21.46 on Monday (1.46 GMT on Tuesday) aboard a Dragon capsule, from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.
Astronauts are expected to perform a series of vital experiments for longer missions, including the first X -ray intake in space and microgravity fungi cultivation.
With the same pioneering spirit of the first polar explorers, we seek to bring new data and knowledge back to advance in the long -term objectives of space exploration, said the commander of the Chun Wang mission.
Wang, a maltés adventurer born in China and co -founder of the F2pool and Skatefish cryptographic companies, chose the rest of the crew: the vehicle commander, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Norway filmmaker; The German pilot and researcher in Robotics, Rabea Rogge, and the Missionary Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips, an Australian polar expeditionary.
The team trained for eight months for a trip of around four days, which included an expedition to Alaska to simulate life in small spaces in severe conditions.
Upon returning to the ground, the crew will try to get out of the spacecraft without additional medical support, as part of a study to understand how well astronauts can perform basic tasks after a space flight.
The polar regions of the Earth have been out of the view of astronauts, even those aboard the International Space Station (EEI). Apollo lunar missions did not pass directly on these regions.
Spacex has made five private missions to date: three in collaboration with Axiom Space to the EEI, as well as two free orbital flights.
The latter were chartered by the billionaire of electronic commerce Jared Isaacman, near Musk and nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next NASA chief administrator.