Humans Could Orbit Earth’s Poles for the First Time Today. What Took So Long?

Launching rockets from the ground is one thing, but deciding on a route to follow around Earth is a different story. Earth has a set of specific orbits, and space missions travel around the planet on an orbital road of their choice. But not all orbits are created equal—some are less traveled than others. SpaceX’s upcoming private mission will venture out to a polar orbit around Earth. Fram2, named in honor of the original ship that reached both Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions, is set for launch no earlier than Monday, March 31 at 11:20 p.m. ET. The mission will send four amateur astronauts over the planet’s polar regions at an altitude of around 265 to 280 miles (425 to 450 kilometers) above the ground, and the crew will become the first to orbit over Earth’s poles. The mission’s trajectory will offer the Fram2 crew a rare glimpse of Earth’s polar regions—a view seldom seen by humans from space—but it does come with its challenges. So, why exactly has it taken spaceflight so lon ... Read full article.