SpaceX will undertake its first human spaceflight over the Earth's poles, potentially before the year's end, the company revealed on Monday, according to ArsTechnica.
The mission, named "Fram2," will be spearheaded by Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur originally from China.
Joining him on the Crew Dragon spacecraft will be a polar explorer, a roboticist, and a filmmaker, all of whom Wang has befriended in recent years.
The Fram2 mission, inspired by the Norwegian research ship Fram, will launch from SpaceX's facilities in Florida and will travel directly over the North and South Poles.
The mission is scheduled to coincide with the Southern Hemisphere's summer solstice to maximize lighting during the three-to-five-day journey.
The crew will fly aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance, a spacecraft named after Ernest Shackleton's legendary ship that became trapped in Antarctic ice over a century ago.
The spacecraft will be equipped with a cupola to facilitate photography and filming during the mission.
This will be SpaceX's third free-flying mission using Crew Dragon, following the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, funded and commanded by US entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, and the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, which is expected to launch later this month.
In an interview, Wang mentioned that he modeled the Fram2 mission's crew and public outreach efforts after the framework established by Isaacman.