A few firsts This trip is privately funded, and such missions allow for SpaceX’s customers to spend their time in space as they see fit. For Fram2, the crew traveled to orbit prepared to carry out 22 research and science experiments, some of which were designed and overseen by SpaceX. Most of the research involves evaluating crew health. Upon the splashdown return off the coast of California, for example, the crew carried out an “egress experiment.” That objective tested the passengers’ ability to exit their spacecraft on their own after returning to Earth. After most human spaceflight missions, astronauts are aided by personnel on the ground. (However, most of these missions carry astronauts to the space station, where they live in microgravity for months, which means returning crew must readapt to Earth’s gravity.) Fram2 crewmates (from left) Rabea Rogge, Eric Philips and Jannicke Mikkelsen drink beverages while in orbit in a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Chun Wang/Fram2 One at a time, the passengers tested getting out of their seats by themselves, taking off their foot rests, and bending down to grab their survival gear, which weighed about 35 pounds, according to Marissa Rosenberg, a senior medical research engineer at SpaceX, who provided commentary during a webcast of the Fram2 splashdown. The egress experiment was just one of the “firsts” related to this splashdown. Another involved the landing site: A crewed SpaceX mission has never returned from space and splashed down off the coast of California. The company’s crewed missions so far have returned near Florida. SpaceX has said it would move its recovery operations to the West Coast for safety reasons. The Dragon capsule had to eject a cylindrical attachment at its base — called the trunk — as it reentered the atmosphere. Returning from space in California helped ensure that piece of hardware was safely disposed of in the ocean, rather than risking its disposal over land. What the Fram2 crew did in space Satellites are routinely launched into orbit around Earth’s poles. So while the Fram2 crew’s view from space had previously been captured, it was experienced through human eyes for the first time during this flight. No crewed mission had ever traveled directly over the planet’s poles from Earth orbit. The frigid caps of our home planet are invisible to humans on board the International Space Station, for example, which orbits near Earth’s equatorial line. Fram2 mission commander Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency billionaire who commissioned SpaceX for this flight, captured this view of Antarctica during a three-day stay in orbit around Earth's poles. Chun Wang/Fram2 Before Fram2, a 1963 Soviet mission called Vostok 6 — carrying Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel to space — came the closest to a polar orbit, flying at a 65-degree inclination. Fram2, however, aimed for a 90-degree orientation, meaning it’s flying perpendicular to the equator. From orbit, the Fram2 crew was able to set its sights on Svalbard, a group of Norwegian islands near the North Pole where the Fram2 participants met. And Wang highlighted the uniqueness of their vantage point. “I often say Fram2 is a Svalbard mission. We @framonauts all met on Svalbard, and we love the ice,” Wang wrote in a post shared Thursday evening. “The mission was planned when I lived there, and we fly polar because, in an ISS-like orbit, we are unable to see where we live. From this perspective, the mission has perfectly achieved its goal.” The first X-ray ever captured of a human hand (left) is shown compared with the first X-ray created in space during the Fram2 mission in this screenshot from video. From SpaceX Putting the Fram2 crew and spacecraft into polar orbit may have had more to do with planning a distinctive mission — rather than one ideally suited for science, said Dr. Christopher Combs, the associate dean of research at the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “This is a private mission. You need something to say that’s different and exciting about it,” Combs said. Orbital trajectory aside, the crew members were able to lend their bodies to research, perhaps expanding knowledge of how humans can optimally live and work within the confines of a tiny spacecraft — something that may be necessary for months at a time if humans ever venture to Mars. The Fram2 crew’s research included Mikkelsen and Rogge using urine testing strips to measure their hormone levels in an attempt to gather novel health data about how women are affected by spaceflight. The two astronauts each wore a wellness-tracking Oura Ring, which collected data about how well they slept in the confines of the capsule with no gravity. The crewmates also attempted to grow mushrooms in space and have allowed their brains to be mapped and imaged for science. The Fram2 crew (from left) Eric Philips, Rabea Rogge, Jannicke Mikkelsen and Chun Wang are seen inside the Dragon capsule during splashdown on April 4 in this screenshot from video. From SpaceX Dr. Eric Donovan, an aurora expert with the University of Calgary’s department of physics and astronomy, also told CNN that he was excited by the prospect of seeing new images of aurora-like light shows from space. Donovan is one of the world’s foremost experts on Steve, a light spectacle that has only recently been studied and is occasionally visible in northern latitudes during an aurora. Taking photographs of aurora and other polar light shows has not been done extensively from space, as astronauts on the International Space Station can typically only attempt to capture such photographs in their spare time, he noted. “That’s one of the things that maybe is a good thing in self-funded spaceflight: because it’s self-funded, you can do whatever you want,” Donovan said. Ad Feedback