Spaceflight Now

Update April 1, 9:15 p.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed the Tuesday launch attempt and is now targeting Thursday.

SpaceX stood down from a planned Falcon 9 rocket launch Tuesday night. The mission, dubbed Starlink 11-13, will deliver the latest 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit and will be the 25th Starlink flight of the year.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base is now targeting Thursday, April 3, at 3:54 pm PT (7:54 pm ET, 2354 UTC).

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1088 in the SpaceX fleet, will launch for a fifth time. It previously supported the launches of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH rideshare mission, NROL-57, NROL-126 and the Transporter-12 smallsat rideshare flight.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1088 will target a landing on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ which is positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 123rd booster landing on OCISLY and the 426th booster landing to date.

A historic mission took flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday night. Against the backdrop of an off-shore band of thunderstorms, four first-time astronauts soared off the pad at Launch Complex 39A onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and headed into a polar orbit.

Malta resident Chun Wang funded the orbital polar expedition and flew alongside Norwegian cinematographer, Jannicke Mikkelsen; German arctic robotics researcher, Rabea Rogge; and Australian polar guide, Eric Philips.

Liftoff of the mission, dubbed Fram2, happened at the opening of the launch window at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 UTC).

Heading into the launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 60 percent chance for favorable weather at the opening of the window, predicting the thunderstorms that caused some consternation by those watching the launch at the LC-39A Press Site.

On Friday, Kiko Dontchev, the vice president of Launch for SpaceX, said they were juggling a similar challenge to launch as they experienced with the Polaris Dawn flight last year.

“This mission is a little more challenging than even a normal crew mission when it comes to launch availability,” Dontchev said during a teleconference about the mission on X. “Because this is a free flier and we are not going to the space station, we not only have to worry about weather at the launch site, weather on the ascent track, but we also have to go ahead and predict weather in the recovery zone.”

The Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission, tail number B1085 in the SpaceX fleet launched for a sixth time. This was the second time this booster launched crew to orbit following the flight of Crew-9 to the International Space Station in September 2024.

The Fram2 mission marked the first time that a booster with five previous flights launched an astronaut mission.

SpaceX is flying the crew onboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft. This is its fourth trip to space, following the launches of Crew-1, Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn.

One for the history books

The destination of these four astronauts for their 3.5- to 5-day mission takes them on a polar orbit at a 90 degree inclination. While this isn’t the highest inclination for a mission launching from the Space Coast (that would be the ESSA 9 weather satellite in 1969, per astronomer Jonathan McDowell) this will be the highest inclination flown by humans.

“Interestingly, the closest astronauts have ever come to flying in a true polar orbit (90 deg inclination) were the original Soviet Vostok and Voskhod cosmonauts (including Yuri Gagarin) in the early 1960s – and they only flew to around 65 deg,” Jon Edwards, vice president of Falcon and Dragon at SpaceX, wrote on X. “The space shuttle did a single mission to 62 deg in 1990. Now, in the spirit of exploration, Fram2 will take yet another bold step for humankind.”

Mikkelsen, an award-winning cinematographer is responsible for capturing the experience through a variety of cameras throughout the flight. She said it’s marquee moment for human spaceflight.

“My first and immediate thought is: We are leaving planet Earth. We are embarking on an epic expedition to be the first humans in a polar orbit, the last frontier of human exploration in low Earth orbit,” she said. “We are the new generation of astronauts.”

During the mission, the crew will conduct a suite of 22 science experiments and technology demonstrations. Those include experiments monitoring glucose regulation, mushroom growth and the impact of spaceflight on women’s reproductive health.

Learn more about the crew and how they came to this mission by clicking here.

Four people united by their fascination with the Earth’s polar regions are embarking on a spaceflight that will allow them to experience those remote areas like no human before.

Chun Wang, a 42-year-old entrepreneur and adventurer, chartered a free-flier mission with SpaceX aboard the Dragon Resilience spacecraft. Following eight months of training, he along with Jannicke Mikkelsen, a 38-year-old cinematographer and director; Rabea Rogge, a 29-year-old, arctic robotics researcher; and Eric Philips, a 62-year-old polar explorer are undertaking a multi-day mission, dubbed “Fram2.”

Wang said he took inspiration from previous spaceflights that named their spacecraft and missions after historic vessels.

“On the evening of April 23, 2023, I was in Saudi Arabia, lying in my hotel bed, thinking about the perfect name for the world’s first spaceflight mission to orbit the poles,” Wang told Spaceflight Now in a prelaunch interview. “I recalled the British Mars lander, Beagle2. I had spent a lot of time following that mission, among others, during my college years. It was named after the Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world in the 1830s. That’s when it hit me. I could name my mission after a ship, too.

“I thought of Fram, the ship aiming to [explore] both poles.”

According to The Fram Museum, the polar ship was the first “specifically built in Norway for polar research.” It sailed on three key expeditions: it drifted with the ice floes the Arctic Ocean between 1893 and 1896, to the arctic archipelago west of Greenland between 1898 and 1902 and to Antarctica from 1910 to 1912.

Like the expeditions of yesteryear, Wang wanted to bring together this collective to bring their experiences with polar exploration to bear on this mission.

“As a crew, we are eager to showcase our explorational spirit and show the world the polar regions from a new angle while also showcasing how technology helps push the boundaries of how we understand Earth and Space,” Chun said. “We’ve all dedicated our lives to exploring and sharing the polar regions with others in different ways, we have a chance to do this on a scale that no one else has ever had.”

For a mission overview, click here. Before they take to the skies, here’s an introduction to the four members of the Fram2 mission.

Chun Wang

The man behind the Fram2 mission, Chun Wang, is an entrepreneur who became fascinated with travel at a very young age. Growing up in China, he said it wasn’t until he turned 18 in 2000 and went off to university that he traveled more 172 km (107 mi) from his home.

As a kid, he imagined traveling the world, thanks to his grandparents with whom he lived during his childhood. Wang said they were the ones who taught him to read.

“In 1987, when I was 5 years old, my grandfather went for a walk and brought home a world map he had found. That map instantly became my favorite thing to play with, and it sparked my curiosity,” Wang said. “What really caught my eye was the empty space at the bottom of the map—the polar regions. From that moment, I was fascinated by the mystery and excitement of these distant and unknown places.”

Wang began really racking up travel miles when he started working for a Norwegian-owned software company in Beijing. To save money, he slept on the sofa of a French colleague or at the office and then would commute back home on the weekends, which was about 120 km (75 mi) away from the office.

“Despite having a full-time job, I traveled 75,900 km (47,162 mi) by train that year alone, using only my weekends,” Wang said. “In total, I spent two months solely in train cars in 2007, leaving work for the train station on Fridays, only returning the following Mondays.”

Wang spent the next four years expanding his travels and was able to visit every province in China by train. His first international trip came in 2010 when he visited Nepal and later India.

He said his travels took him to the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent. He hopped onboard what was then India’s longest, non-stop train ride — 16317 Himsagar Express — which took him from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and continued on his journey through the country, which he said ended up costing him about $1,000, “which was everything I had.”

“In those years, I was fascinated by infrastructure and transportation, especially railways. I meticulously recorded every train ride down to the minutes, even the seconds, and posted these records on online forums and bulletin boards,” Wang said. “Someone once gave me the nickname ‘High-Speed Rail 1000 Times Guy’ because I was counting my rides toward a goal of 1000 rides on the high-speed trains.” 

Wang said that as of March 20, 2025, he rode high-speed trains a total of 854 times. His number of air flights, however, is now tantalizingly close to 1,000.

When he began planning the Fram2 mission with SpaceX, Wang also started really paying attention to the number of flights he’d logged. According to his record, his flight onboard the Dragon Resilience will be his 1,000th flight of any kind and his first to space.

Before pursuing spaceflight, Wang’s interest was in new terrestrial technologies. He first heard about personal computers when he was 7-years-old and received his first computer, a 486SX running MS-DOS 5.0 when he was 13-years-old and finished with primary school.

“I used it to write many interesting programs, besides games, one of the earliest was a gravity simulator that visualized planetary motion in the solar system,” Wang said. “At school, I participated in various programming contests, including the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) and ACM-ICPC. Instead of taking the national college entrance exam, I was directly admitted to university based on my performance in these contests.”

Wang leveraged his technology skills to co-found the Bitcoin mining company, f2poool in 2013. He said a year after its start, they became “the largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world.” While that distinction is now held by Foundry USA, according to Luxor Technology’s Hashrate Index, f2pool is still the fourth largest Bitcoin mining pool.

Wang said that while they’ve been able to mine 1.3 million Bitcoins over the past decade, his interest in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin has “shifted” over time.

“Now, I find myself drawn to another new and emerging field—the field I have been interested in since childhood —- space,” Wang said. “Since SpaceX began recovering Falcon 9 boosters, the commercial space industry has been advancing at an incredible pace. Once again, I see something new and exciting unfolding, similar to the feeling when I first heard about computers and first discovered Bitcoin.”

From Bitcoin to blastoff

The seeds of the Fram2 mission were born through Wang’s global travels as he continued to push further and further towards the poles. He said he felt a drive to “push the boundaries of how far in longitude and latitude I could go.”

“In 2006, I reached the border with Kazakhstan at 82°E to the west. In 2011, I traveled to India’s southernmost tip, reaching 8°N to the south,” Wang said. “In 2012, I took the Trans-Siberian Railway to Europe, arriving in St. Petersburg at 60°N, 30°E. In 2013, I went to Kamchatka, reaching 160°E to the east, then finally in 2016, I traveled to the United States for the first time.

“In December 2021, I reached the South Pole, and again in July 2023, the North Pole—there are no further points left to push the boundary on Earth anymore, which makes space an exciting frontier to explore.”

Wang said as he considered what a spaceflight crew would look like, it was important to gather a group together that didn’t include any Americans. Fram2 will be the first flight of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft without any representation from the United States, which he was intentional.

“In 2004, when I volunteered as a Wikipedia editor, I spent a lot of time working on space related articles, including a list of space-faring countries—those countries with at least an astronaut flown into orbit,” Wang said. “When I selected this crew, I intentionally made the crew diverse to represent the open future we hope to see for space exploration.”

When it came to who to include on this mission, Wang said first and foremost was to ensure that there was someone from Norway since Fram is a Norwegian ship. That’s how Mikkelsen, a Norwegian cinematographer and film director, came to mind.

“Jannicke and I are neighbors when I am in Svalbard, and given her past experience on ‘One More Orbit,’ she is probably one the best fit for this mission,” Wang said.

The other two crew members, Rogge from Germany and Philips from Australia, were folks who Wang met while on a ski expedition in Svalbard in April 2023.

“Eric has been to the North Pole and South Pole for perhaps 30 times, while Rabea has worked on a CubeSat project,” Wang said. “Both of them love space and have polar experience, so we’re a great team connected by our connection to Svalbard and are excited to represent a place we love during the mission.”

Wang said following the Fram2 mission he wants to stay involved with space and hinted at what he has his eye on next.

“Once Starship becomes operational, it will open up unprecedented possibilities for private space travel and Mars won’t be just a distant dream,” he said. “Considering the vast possibilities, I think it’s time to start saving money…”

Jannicke Mikkelsen

Sitting in the seat reserved for a commander of a Dragon spacecraft is Jannicke Mikkelsen. The 38-year-old is an award winning cinematographer and film director who was hailed by the European Commission as “an innovator in next-gen film production.”

She was also called a “monument” in virtual reality filmmaking by the lead guitarist of Queen, Brian May, who is also an astrophysicist. Mikkelsen received a Master’s degree in cinematography from the National Film and Television school in the United Kingdom.

Highlights of her professional career include serving as the director, director of photography and stenographer on the VR concert film, “Queen + Adam Lambert: VR the Champions.”

“I’ve been very fortunate to work with legends such as Brian May and to call him my mentor. He taught me that inspiration is born through renewed perspective!” Mikkelsen said. “You can either seek out a new perspective, or you can create it. In my career I do a mixture of both. I seek to bring my camera where nobody has gone before me, and I also film in 3D to make you feel like you are there with me.

“To make it possible to bring a camera with me I must innovate because the technology we have available today is insufficient for the challenge ahead. My dream is to take you with me on our Fram2 space mission for you to experience our mission and see planet Earth as we will.”

Mikkelsen, who grew up in Longyearbyen, Norway, said she has long been interested in filming in extreme environments. She said she likes the challenge and promise held in going to extraordinary lengths to get a shot.

“Few venture out into the uncomfortable to explore our planet. To operate in extreme environments takes years of preparation, innovation, and physical training to succeed,” Mikkelsen said. “At large, few seek, or have access to extreme environments. And as we know, out of sight is out of mind. I see it as my duty to show you the most beautiful, yet vulnerable environments on our planet.”

Part of that sense of duty is connected to why she runs. She and her fiancé, Rolf-Harald Haugen, are planning to run both the Spitzbergen marathon and the Berlin marathon even though she hates running.

“I run because I hate running and it’s uncomfortable. Discomfort spawns growth. I will never take my ability to run for granted,” Mikkelsen said. “I spent five years learning to walk, run and jump after a horse riding accident when I was ten years old. To not run would be to do my body and brain a disservice.

“I was given the gift of a second chance at life. I will live my life forever exploring and building my body to carry me where I want to go next.”

Ultimate adventure

Mikkelsen says it’s a huge point of pride for her to be the first professionally trained cinematographer to head to space. As someone who enjoys pushing the boundaries of what’s possible she said she was “honored” to accept the challenge offered by Wang.

“One of our mission objectives is to film the Arctic and Antarctic,” she said. “(It’s) a responsibility I don’t take lightly as the first humans in history to view Earth’s poles from space.”

Mikkelsen is working with her production company, O2XR, to help capture the best views of both the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis for future scientific study. They’ve done extensive work in an attempt to leave as little to chance as possible.

“My team at O2XR and I have planned out every shot from space in detail by using a virtual mockup of our capsule in our orbit,” Mikkelsen said. “This lets me virtually look out the Dragon windows and cupola, film with a virtual camera and attach all my virtual lenses to see what the image will look like when we are in orbit.”

While on orbit, Mikkelsen said she plans to use an array of lenses and cameras, including Canon R5C and the RED V-Raptor 8K.

“Yes I can confirm we have the capability to shoot 180-VR and 8K. VR is a way for you as the viewer to first hand experience our spaceflight,” she said. “The quality will be like joining our four person crew and living with us in Dragon orbiting around Earth.”

When she launches to space, she will also become the first Norwegian astronaut.

“I live on the archipelago Svalbard and am proud to represent the Arctic as part of our crew,” Mikkelsen said. “Beyond being the Vehicle Commander, my job is to document our record breaking space mission to inspire the next generation of astronauts.”

During a discussion on the mission over X’s live audio streaming platform, Spaces, Mikkelsen said she has been collaborating on in-space photography techniques with one of NASA’s most renowned photographers, astronaut Don Petit.

“He’s been testing out a few camera settings for me and verifying that the hypothesis is correct,” she said.

She said beyond documenting the multi-day trip, she’s most excited to help open the door to space for those who haven’t been involved in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

“I am just really honored that I am not a STEM-educated person. I have a Master’s in cinematography. Even if it’s a very technical subject, it’s still considered art and I’m honored to represent the non-STEM educated in space and flying my film camera,” Mikkelsen said. “I am so proud to be the first educated cinematographer in space. And I am stepping up to the challenge.”

Rabea Rogge

The youngest member of the Fram2 crew is Rabea Rogge. Hailing from Berlin, Germany, the 29-year-old is taking a pause from pursuing a PhD to take part in this mission to space.

Originally, she was taking a pause from her studies to conduct a trip to Antarctica, but didn’t imagine that flying to low Earth orbit was going to be on the docket.

“I am very humbled that Chun has invited me to this mission of a lifetime,” Rogge said.

The mission isn’t the first time that space or interest in polar regions became a part of Rogge’s life. She started her PhD in Norway with a focus on decision making for autonomous boats in polar waters.

“I find it fascinating how the rules change when conditions get hostile, with wind, waves and ice – it is already hard for us humans, so how should an autonomous agent know how to take the right path of action?” Rogge said.

Her work with space began when she took part of a student team that set out to design and build a satellite intending to induce artificial gravity by spinning. The satellite also carried human cells onboard in order to observe “the effects of aging in different levels of microgravity.”

“We were a team of novices in the beginning and knew nothing of satellites – it was incredibly inspiring to see how far we got within one year of hard work, making mistakes and getting up and going again,” Rogge said. “We went from nothing to already having tested a prototype on a parabolic flight and winning the ESA competition.

“We often got told that our plans were too ambitious in the beginning, which only encouraged us more to go forward. It showed me how important perseverance and risk taking is and how much you can contribute to the New Space sector with a great team.”

First German woman in space

Rogge’s involvement in the historic mission came about through a happenstance meeting. She and Eric Philips met Wang while training for a ski expedition in Spitsbergen and they all bonded over their love of “technology, future visions and space technology in general.”

“We are all very interested to see where technology is headed and how it can be pushed to improve our lives even more,” Rogge said. “I was leading the satellite team at that time, so I would not stop talking about space missions and overly ambitious plans.”

During and after the mission, Rogge said she will focus on three main goals. The first two goals are focusing on enabling and communicating quality science to the public and connecting with the broad public through various outreach projects.

“As a researcher I know that we are usually not very good at explaining what we are doing and am excited to change that,” Rogge said. “In this early time of spacefaring, it is our responsibility to share the experience and take people on the journey with us. I am most looking forward to an amateur radio competition and an aurora citizen science project that we have going on from space.”

Her final main goal is to provide an example of how human spaceflight can and should become more accessible and inclusive.

“We are the first ever crew without a licensed pilot onboard and our success will continue to make these missions accessible to a larger group of people,” Rogge said. “By progress in the spacecraft being autonomous, less requirements are put on the pilot.

“If we want to become an interstellar civilization we need as much data as we can about living in space, which means broader access to space. We are not quite there yet, but I would love for awareness to spread on how fast the situation is changing – and for this to empower people to take part in the rapid changes.”

Beyond the human spaceflight aspect, Rogge said there’s important polar research that will hopefully be aided by their mission. She pointed to the Aurora project, which involves simultaneous imagine of the auroras from space and from the ground by dozens of observers.

“We have a great team at the university in Svalbard, led by Katie Herlingshaw, working on establishing a citizen scientists network and common database around the world, Ragee said. “For this mission they are studying a specific phenomenon within the Aurora, but the real power lies in establishing this common ground for any future investigation into the physics of the atmosphere. I am very excited to see the results!”

Rogee is also breaking ground in her own right. She will become the first German woman to travel to space. Alexander Gerst, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who served as commander of the space station during Expedition 57 and also represented Germany, wrote to Rogge on X to wish her luck and a safe landing.

Rogge said she’s not spending too much time thinking about her place in history, but said she’s “honored to be representing my home city, Berlin, and Germany in space.”

“With Fram2 we want to inspire people to dream big, so I really hope that this effect will be felt in Germany and empower the next generation of spacefarers, engineers, scientists and artists!”

Eric Philips

The fourth member of the Fram2 mission is 62-year-old Australian polar explorer, Eric Philips. On his personal website, he describes himself as a “polar adventurer,” which he said goes back to his time as a kid when his parents started taking him and his five siblings to southern Australia.

“I’ve dedicated much of my life to untracked areas of the Arctic and Antarctica including pioneering four glacial routes to the South Pole,” Philips said. “Much of my polar career has been as a guide, taking relative novices into areas previously the domain of professional explorers, a direct extension of my previous occupation as an outdoor educator. Adventure is its own reward and it has made me who I am.”

Philips is the founder and director of the company Icetrek Expeditions and Equipment and has more than 30 years of experience in polar environments. He focuses on Svalbard, Norway, because it is “a snapshot of everything polar, including extreme cold, ice and snow, frozen mountains and fjords, glaciers, polar bears and the aurora.”

“It’s important that people’s engagement with the natural world is experiential, seeing and doing things first-hand,” Philips said. “When such things are taken to their full potential they unlock scientific and geographical mysteries, and keep alive the very spirit of exploration and adventure that catapulted humankind into the Age of Enlightenment.”

Like Rogge, Philips first met Wang during a ski expedition in 2023. Being a part of this space expedition is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“Yes, like many kids I dreamed of being an astronaut. Even as an adult these musings never left me so for this to become a reality in my sixties is the embodiment of a mantra I reserve for prospective polar adventurers: ‘Dream big. Live bigger. Begin!’” Philips said.

“The point here is that I never stopped living bigger and the chance to become an astronaut befell me, not because of luck but because of life choices. Space exploration is an iteration of the frontier days of polar exploration, when explorers on board ships such as Fram carved routes towards and beyond unknown horizons.”

Historic elevations

The Fram2 mission will be the highest inclination for a crew launch in history. He said getting to experience parts of the Earth he’s explored dozens of times on the ground from space will be a highlight of his career.

“I’ve viewed thousands of images of Antarctica and the Arctic while planning polar expeditions, but there is no experiential evidence that what we observe in those images is truly representative of how they look from space with human eyes,” Philips said. “To be among the first people to see these high latitudes from low earth orbit is an exquisite privilege and I truly believe will be a transformational experience.”

Beyond some of the new feats that will be executed with this mission, Philip said he’s also looking forward to furthering knowledge of the return from space as well. Part of this will come through the execution of an unassisted egress from their Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“More and more, crews returning to Earth or landing on Mars will become increasingly self-reliant when climbing out of a spacecraft,” Philips said. “After Dragon splashes down and is hoisted onto the recovery ship, the Fram2 crew will demonstrate an unassisted egress – releasing restraints, emerging from their seats, unloading mock emergency equipment and exiting through the hatch.”

Update March 31, 4:40 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed the first stage booster on the droneship.

A day after poor weather prevented a Sunday flight, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday afternoon with a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-80 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:52 p.m. EDT (1952 UTC) on Monday, March 31.

SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1080, to launch the Starlink 6-80 mission. It will be making its 17th launch after supporting four missions to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid observatory and 10 previous Starlink flights.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 landed on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions’. This marked the 113th booster landing on this droneship and the 424th booster landing to date.

On board the rocket are 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which represented the largest batch of this type of satellite to fly on one mission. The previous record was 27 satellites on the Starlink 11-8 and Starlink 11-7 missions.

In its 2024 progress report, the company said the Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites include a Doppio Dualband antenna along with “upgraded avionics, propulsion, and power systems, and are mass optimized for Falcon 9 to allow up to 29 satellites to launch on each mission – six more satellites per launch than the original V2 Mini design.” With this upcoming launch, SpaceX will be close to reaching that goal. Much larger Starlink V3 satellites will debut once the company’s 400-foot-tall Starship rocket is capable of sending payloads to orbit.

Update March 30, 1:12 a.m. EDT: SpaceX completed a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket.

Less than a month after the SpaceX Crew-10 mission blasted off to the International Space Station, another four-person crew is gearing to up launch from the same pad in Florida this time making history as the first astronauts to fly in a polar orbit.

The mission is dubbed “Fram2” in reference to the Norwegian ship, Fram, which was used for Antarctic and Arctic expeditions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the same spirit, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, Resilience, will orbit the Earth over the poles during the course of a three- to five-day mission.

Fram2 is targeting launch on Monday, March 31, at 9:47 p.m. EDT (0147 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Ahead of the mission, on Saturday, the crew conducted a dry dress rehearsal to go through the motions of launch day.

That was followed by a static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket at LC-39A. Ignition of the nine Merlin engines at the base of the rocket happened at 12:47 a.m. EDT (0447 UTC).

SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1085, which will be making its sixth trip to space and back. It will also mark the first time a crewed mission launches on a booster with five previous flights.

Dragon Resilience will once again be outfitted with a cupola underneath the nose cone, as it did during the Inspiration4 mission in 2021. The capsule most recently flew on the Polaris Dawn mission using the Skywalker bracing system used to support the commercial spacewalk.

The stated mission goals for Fram2 are to to conduct a mission dedictated to capturing and studying the Earth’s polar regions from a low Earth orbit (LEO) vantage point and to perform science experiments that will help further long-duration space exploration.

The crew consist of Malta resident Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Pilot Rabea Rogge and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips. All four of them will fly to space for the first time on this mission that is being funded by Wang for an undisclosed amount.

The four private astronauts arrived in Florida on Monday, March 24, following roughly eight months of training, at SpaceX facilities in Florida and California as well as in outdoor conditions, like a wilderness expedition in Alaska.

“As a crew, we are eager to showcase our explorational spirit and show the world the polar regions from a new angle while also showcasing how technology helps push the boundaries of how we understand Earth and Space,” said Chun Wang, the mission commander in a written response to questions from Spaceflight Now. “We’ve all dedicated our lives to exploring and sharing the polar regions with others in different ways, we have a chance to do this on a scale that no one else has ever had.”

The crew have 22 science and research experiments that will be performed during their flight. Those include sleep research in partnership with Oura Health, Inc.; glucose monitoring, which will help account for future astronauts who may be diabetic; and a women’s heath study, which will use the Hormona app and test to “analyze how the female reproductive hormones are impacted by microgravity and space radiation.”

Philips, the assigned medical officer and professional polar guide, said some of the science he’s most looking forward to are experiments that will help with long-duration spaceflight and future Mars habitation.

“Research shows that changes in bone density are measurable shortly after being exposed to microgravity. Astronauts on the ISS workout on treadmills for up to two hours per day to mitigate bone density and muscle loss,” Philips said. “Fram2 will be taking the first X-rays in space, an important step towards monitoring and treating the bones of humans flying to Mars.

“Fram2 will [also] be the first mission to cultivate and grow mushrooms in space. Successfully growing edible mushrooms in microgravity, such as oyster mushrooms, will demonstrate the capability of astronauts to produce a nutritious and sustainable in-flight food source for future missions to Mars.”

The latter experiment, dubbed Mission MushVroom, will see the growth of oyster mushrooms.

Part of the mission will also be focused on imaging the poles through both photography and videography. Mikkelsen, an award-winning Norwegian cinematographer and film director, is leading the charge on this alongside her production company, O2XR.

“My team at O2XR and I have planned out every shot from space in detail by using a virtual mockup of our capsule in our orbit,” she said. “This lets me virtually look out the Dragon windows and cupola, film with a virtual camera and attach all my virtual lenses to see what the image will look like when we are in orbit.”

Mikkelsen said she will use a reMarkable Paper Pro tablet to help calculate and note the various camera shots while on orbit. Among the equipment she’s flying and will use are O2XR previs, RED V-Raptor 8K cameras, Canon R5C cameras and a range of Canon RF lenses.

She said the reason for the wide array of equipment is to capture video in 180-degree virtual reality and in 8K to provide the best quality views of their experience. Mikkelsen said fine-tuning the selection was “an extensive process” to overcome some of the “unique challenges with planning a film production from space.”

“This is a human spaceflight and safety is our number one priority. These cameras and lenses we are bringing have gone through rigorous testing to see if they can endure our launch to space,” Mikkelsen said. “The last thing I want to discover on orbit are cameras and lenses that broke under the powerful G-forces we experience on blast-off.”

During the orbital expedition, they will be documenting the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, which will used for further scientific study in the months and years to come. Mikkelsen said their imagery will be matched up with photographers and videographers on the Earth who will photograph the auroras simultaneously during the Fram2 mission as part of the SolarMaX project.

The quartet are set to hold a public briefing on X on Friday, March 28, to discuss their mission. An on-camera briefing is not planned ahead of liftoff.

The makeup of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station was announced publicly Thursday evening and it includes three astronauts who were previously assigned to other missions.

Leading the flight, scheduled for no earlier than July 2025, is NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. She will be joined by fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

These four will be on the space station when the ISS marks the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence on the orbiting outpost. Expedition 1 docked to the station on Nov. 2, 2000.

Crew-11 will have a short handover with Crew-10, which arrived at the station earlier this month.

Cardman was previously assigned to be the commander of the Crew-9 mission. The original lineup of Cardman along with NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov was announced back in January 2024.

NASA’s decision on August 24, 2024, that the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test mission would conclude with the spacecraft returning uncrewed, led to Cardman and Wilson being removed from that mission and becoming eligible for reassignment down the road.

So far, NASA has not announced if Wilson has been assigned to a new mission and if so, which one.

Changes for Starliner-1

The Crew-11 announcement also creates the latest shakeup for the Starliner-1 mission.

Back in 2018, when NASA astronaut Eric Boe withdrew from the Starliner Crew Flight Test mission lineup, he was replaced by Fincke alongside fellow NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson.

Fincke was then referred to as part of the “cadre of Starliner astronauts” alongside Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during a May 18, 2022, prelaunch briefing for the Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). In June 2022, Williams was moved from the Starliner-1 mission to the Starliner Crew Flight Test and Fincke was named the backup pilot for CFT.

Then, in September 2022, NASA announced astronaut Scott Tingle would serve as the Starliner-1 commander with Fincke in the pilot seat. NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, who had been a mission specialist for the Starliner-1 mission began cross-training on Dragon around this time, which foreshadowed her eventual reassignment to the SpaceX Crew-8 mission in August 2023.

In November 2023, the last formal member of the Starliner-1 mission was named. Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk was appointed to the mission specialist role. At that time, the Starliner-1 mission was scheduled to launch no earlier than the beginning of 2025.

As part of its announcement on Thursday, NASA also named JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui as a Crew-11 mission specialist. While Yui was never formally named as a member of the Starliner-1 mission, he was present during the rollout of the Starliner spacecraft alongside Fincke, Kutryk, Tingle, Williams and Wilmore.

He has also posted multiple times to his account on X describing various training exercises he participated in on the Starliner spacecraft.

Spaceflight Now reached out to NASA to see if Kutryk and Tingle are still part of the Starliner-1 crew. As of publishing, an answer has not been provided.

Future for Boeing Starliner

Meanwhile, NASA and Boeing are continuing to work through data gathered during the Starliner CFT mission from last summer. In a blog post, NASA said “more than 70% of flight observations and in-flight anomalies being closed at program-level control boards.”

However, it said the “major in-flight propulsion system anomalies” seen during the mission still remain as outstanding items and likely will until “further into 2025, pending the outcome of various ground test campaigns and potential system upgrades.”

A new testing campaign is being planned for the spring and summer, which will take place at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. That’s the site where Boeing and NASA attempted to troubleshoot the propulsion issues during the Starliner mission as they debated whether it was safe to return with crew.

“Testing at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico will include integrated firing of key Starliner thrusters within a single service module doghouse to validate detailed thermal models and inform potential propulsion and spacecraft thermal protection system upgrades, as well as operational solutions for future flights,” NASA said. “These solutions include adding thermal barriers within the doghouse to better regulate temperatures and changing the thruster pulse profiles in flight to prevent overheating.

“Meanwhile, teams are continuing testing of new helium system seal options to mitigate the risk of future leaks.”

NASA said it is looking at options for what the next flight of Starliner might look like. The agency noted that while plans are being put in place to support a “crew-capable post-certification mission,” which would likely be some version of the Starliner-1 flight, they could also chose a cargo-only option, “depending on the needs of the agency.”

“Once we get through these planned test campaigns, we will have a better idea of when we can go fly the next Boeing flight,” said Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “We’ll continue to work through certification toward the end of this year and then go figure out where Starliner fits best in the schedule for the International Space Station and its crew and cargo missions. It is likely to be in the timeframe of late this calendar year or early next year for the next Starliner flight.”

In an announcement highly anticipated by United Launch Alliance and others in the spaceflight community, the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) office affirmed that the Vulcan rocket is now fully certified to launch national security payloads.

The completion of this multi-year process means that the USSF’s Space Systems Command can begin launching National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions on the two-stage, heavy-lift rocket.

“Assured access to space is a core function of the Space Force and a critical element of national security,” said Brig. Gen. Panzenhagen, Program Executive Officer for AAST, in a statement. “Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency, and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems.”

ULA and the U.S. Air Force forged a plan for the certification of Vulcan in September 2016. Years of development led to the rocket first certification flight (Cert-1) in January 2024 when it launched the Peregrine-1 mission on behalf of Astrobotic and NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Initially, ULA wanted to fly Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser on its Cert-2 mission, but the winged spaceship wasn’t ready in time. Instead, it pivoted to a launch in October carrying no payload to fulfill the need for a second certification flight.

It was during that flight that one of the rocket’s two solid rocket boosters, a Northrop Grumman GEM 63XL, experienced a burn through less than a minute into flight, which resulted in the liberation of the nozzle. ULA was able to complete its mission as intended, but the anomaly resulted in a month’s long investigation into the root cause.

ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno announced the conclusion of that investigation during a media roundtable in Washington D.C. on March 12.

“We have isolated the root cause, appropriate corrective actions and those were qualified and confirmed in a full-scale static motor firing in Utah last month,” Bruno said. “We are back in continuing to fabricate hardware.”

Bruno said there was a manufacturing defect in one of the internal parts of the nozzle. ULA posted a nearly 12-minute video on YouTube that walked through their diagnosis process and showed a clip of the aforementioned static fire test.

In addition to the work during and following the two certification flights, ULA said it also completed 52 certification criteria, which included 60 payload interface requirement verifications and 18 subsystem design and test reviews.

“Thank you to all our customer partners who have worked hand-in-hand with us throughout this comprehensive certification process. We are grateful for the collaboration and excited to reach this critical milestone in Vulcan development,” Bruno said in a statement. “Vulcan is uniquely designed to meet the challenging requirements demanded by an expanding spectrum of missions for U.S. national security space launches. Moreover, this next-generation rocket provides high performance and extreme accuracy while continuing to deliver to our customer’s most challenging and exotic orbits.”

NSSL Phase 2

The completion of Vulcan’s certification is a long awaited achievement for the U.S. government. In August 2020, SpaceX and ULA won contracts for the NSSL Phase 2 program. Similarly to Phase 1, it divided the number of national security payload missions over a series of order number years.

When the contract was established, the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), which later became Space Systems Command, divided the launches roughly 60-40, with ULA receiving the majority of those missions. When all was said and done, ULA was assigned 26 mission and 23 went to SpaceX.

ULA launched its first NSSL Phase 2 mission, USSF-51, on July 30, 2024, after switching from Vulcan to an Atlas 5 rocket. In a post shared by Bruno to his LinkedIn page, there are three Vulcan boosters at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Two of those are earmarked for the first two NSSL Phase 2 missions: USSF-106 and USSF-87. Following the forthcoming launch of Kuiper-1 on behalf of Amazon and its Project Kuiper internet constellation (using an Atlas 5 rocket), ULA will launch the USSF-106 mission from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41).

In its statement on Wednesday, SSC said USSF-106 is expected to launch “this summer.”

The timing of the Vulcan certification announcement aligns with statements made by SSC to Spaceflight Now in late December. At that point, an SSC spokesperson said,“The government anticipates completion of its evaluation and certification in the first quarter of calendar year 2025.”

The spokesperson added that it anticipated the first Vulcan NSSL mission to launch “in the second quarter 2025.” With the second quarter ending on June 30, ULA may just be a few months from launching its first NSSL mission.

However, that will depend on the readiness of the payload and if there are delays related to the Kuiper-1 mission.

Bruno said he also expects to be launching Vulcan rockets from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California before the end of the year.

SpaceX sent a batch of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket launch Wednesday afternoon. The flight tied the record for the most number of these types of satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to date.

The Starlink 11-7 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled for 3:11 p.m. PDT (6:11 p.m. EDT, 2211 UTC). This was the 11th orbital launch from VSFB so far this year.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1063 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 24th time. This made it the second most flown booster, following B1067, which safely launched and landed 26 times so far.

The previous missions launched by B1063 include three missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft an 15 other Starlink missions. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1063 landed on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’

SpaceX aims to certify its boosters and payload fairings for up to 40 flights each.

The number of Starlink V2 Mini satellites on board the Starlink 11-7 mission suggest that some or all of these are what SpaceX calls its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites in a progress report published at the end of 2024.

The report stated that these satellites include a Doppio Dualband antenna along with “upgraded avionics, propulsion, and power systems, and are mass optimized for Falcon 9 to allow up to 29 satellites to launch on each mission – six more satellites per launch than the original V2 Mini design.”

The Starlink 11-8 mission in mid-January may have had the first number of the Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites onboard, though this wasn’t specified by SpaceX. This was, however, the first time SpaceX launched a batch of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites from either California or Florida.

Starlink 11-7 was just the second time that SpaceX has 27 of these satellites onboard a single Falcon 9 rocket launch. Both launches took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Update 12:35 p.m. EDT: Rocket Lab confirms successful deployment of all eight satellites.

Rocket Lab completed its fifth Electron rocket launch of the year, this time with a mission to send eight fire detection satellites into low Earth orbit.

The mission, dubbed ‘Finding Hot Wildfires Near You,’ is considered Phase 1 for Germany based OroraTech, which wants to deploy a constellation of up to 100 satellites by 2028. These first satellites are called OTC-P1.

Liftoff from Launch Complex 1, Pad B, in Mahia, New Zealand, happened right at 4:30 a.m. NZT on March 27 (11:30 a.m. EDT, 1530 UTC on March 26).

Now that they’re deployed, the satellites will operate in a circular Earth orbit at an altitude of 550 km (341.8 mi) at an inclination of 97 degrees. The company’s stated goal is to create a satellite constellation that will allow 24/7 continuous monitoring against wildfire threats.

Rocket Lab announced it had signed a “responsive launch” contract with OroraTech in late January, stating that the quick turnaround was needed “to meet the season-sensitive requirements of its wildfire detection mission.”

“The rapid turnaround is just the latest demonstration of Rocket Lab’s responsive launch capabilities for satellite operators needing urgent access to space,” Rocket Lab said in a January statement.

OroraTech said it currently has more than 25 public and proprietary satellites that are designed to “give firefighters and emergency personnel near-real-time data on fire behavior and situational awareness for those battling the flames.”

With a constellation of more than 100 satellites, a goal it aims to achieve in the next few years, OroraTech said it aims to have a “maximum gap time of 30 minutes” between site revisits.

“These advancements will allow constant updates to active fires on the ground and support firefighters around the world as they battle flames that destroy life, land, and property,” the company said.

According to an October 2024 newsletter from research firm Quilty Space, OroraTech raised $27 million in a Series B funding round, led by Korys. OroraTech said the funds are designed to help with the construction of its constellation.

Separately, in a February 2025 announcement, Spire Global Canada, a subsidiary of Spire Global, announced a partnership with OroraTech to develop and deploy a new wildfire monitoring satellite constellation that will be part of Canada’s WildFireSat mission.

That Can$72 million contract will see OroraTech bring satellite manufacturing to Spire’s operations within Canada to build an unspecified number of satellites. The WildFireSat constellation is set to begin deployment in 2029, which will be operated by the Canadian Space Agency for a minimum of five years.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which manages the American military’s spy satellites, launched its fifth mission of the 2025 out of roughly a dozen planned for the year.

The flight, dubbed NROL-69, lifted off onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to an undisclosed orbital location. The launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 1:48 p.m. EDT (1748 UTC).

The 45th Weather Squadron, based at Patrick Space Force Base, forecast a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff on Monday. In its outlook, meteorologists said the primary watch item will be the presence of thick clouds.

“Mid and high clouds associated with the upper-level jet will be streaming across the area on Monday, along with additional clouds from the approaching system,” launch weather officers wrote. “Most of this deck still looks too high and cold to be a Thick Cloud Layers concern, but there remains a slight possibility for lower clouds to come in sooner and threaten the launch window.”

SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1092 for this mission. This was its second flight after previously launching the Starlink 12-13 flight on Feb. 27, 2025.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1092 cruised back for a landing at Landing Zone 1, greeting folks around Florida’s Space Coast with a sonic boom. The landing marked be the 50th touchdown at LZ-1 and overall the 422nd booster landing to date.

Phase 2 begins

In August 2020, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance were awarded contracts worth $3.3 billion and and $3.4 billion respectively as part of Phase 2 of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.

Those contract values were drawn up in May 2019 when U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, which oversees the awarding and execution of these contracts, anticipated a total of 34 missions. By the end of the fifth and final order year (FY24) assigning these missions there were a total of 50 and the contract value was adjusted to $4.5 billion for ULA and $4 billion for SpaceX.

Among the 50 missions awarded to SpaceX and ULA, nine come from the NRO. ULA will launch seven of those and SpaceX will launch two of them.

NROL-69 was one of two missions assigned to SpaceX last part of the second year of task orders, which were issued in March 2021. At the time, the firm-fixed-price contract for both NROL-69 and USSF-36 was valued at roughly $159.7 million.

Originally, USSF-36 was scheduled to launch in the second quarter of FY23, with NROL-69 planned to launch in the fourth quarter of FY23. The reasons for these launch delays have not been disclosed.

With few exceptions, the NRO doesn’t provide details about its various missions, including final orbits, payloads and operational lifetimes. In a pre-launch press kit, the agency had a brief line about what will be onboard the Falcon 9 rocket launching Monday.

“This mission carries a national security payload designed, built, and operated by NRO,” the NRO wrote.

Notices to aviators and mariners indicate the rocket will be taking a northeast trajectory, possibly targeting an initial orbit with an inclination of around 53 degrees. The Falcon 9 rocket itself offers another potential hint about the mission. The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket has a grey band wrapped around it.

That band is typically used on a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket to help keep the RP-1 kerosene (the rocket’s propellant) at a consistent temperature during notably long coast phases.

One example of this was the June 2024 Falcon Heavy launch of the GOES-U satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which featured a third burn of the Merlin vacuum engine on the upper stage more than 4 hours and 21 minutes into the mission before the payload was deployed 4.5 hours after liftoff.

The most recent use of this protective layer came during the launch of the Transporter-13 smallsat rideshare mission, which launched earlier in March.

SpaceX doesn’t often discuss this grey stripe, but it was briefly brought up by Ronnie Foreman, a SpaceX commercial sales manager, during the July 28, 2023, launch of the Jupiter-3 mission on a Falcon Heavy rocket. According to Forman, the mission debuted a new medium-coast configuration.

“Our second stages have three general configurations: standard, medium and long-coast. And we use different configurations depending on how long the second stage needs to operate after launch,” Foreman explained. “A medium-coast kit, which is what we’re using today, provides better performance for some missions and includes an added battery loaf or power pack, a painted gray stripe on the outside of the fuel tank and other hardware to make sure that the fuel and stages systems operate as long as needed, once we get to space.

“While in space, the paint will absorb heat from the Sun in order to keep the second stage fuel warm enough for our long flight today.”

Like with the GOES-U mission, there were three burns of the upper stage engine before the Jupiter-3 satellite was deployed.