SpaceX Launching First-Ever Astronauts Over Earth's Poles Tonight

Tonight, SpaceX is scheduled to launch a first-of-its-kind mission that will carry four private astronauts — or depending on how you see it, glorified space tourists — to fly above the Earth's poles. Named "Fram2" after the Norwegian ship that made expeditions to both the Earth's poles over a century ago, the mission will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to carry a Crew Dragon capsule containing the crew to an altitude between 264 to 280 miles. The mission commander is the same person who's financing it: Malta-based crypto entrepreneur Chun Wang, who founded the Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool. Wang is joined by three of his pals: Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, who will be the vehicle commander; German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, the mission's pilot; and Australian polar explorer Eric Philips, the mission specialist and medical officer. None of them have ever flown into space before. Inexperienced as they may be, the crew will be venturing to where no astronauts have eve ... Read full article.