A businessman who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies has purchased a private space flight from SpaceX, which is expected to launch at the end of the year and will be the first manned flight over the Earth's poles.
The flight, which is expected to take between three and five days and will include four people, is part of the development of private space tourism, which has flourished in recent years in the United States.
The spacecraft will be piloted by the co-founder of the Bitcoin mining companies F2Pool and Stickfish, Chun Wang. SpaceX has described Wang as a "Maltese adventurer", although he only recently obtained this nationality, as he was born and raised in China, according to the American specialized press.
Chun Wang wrote on the X platform that he has been waiting for this flight "impatiently for two and a half years". He added that "a new chapter in space exploration is taking place before our eyes".
"Observation dome"
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell explained to AFP that several satellites, whether for spying or meteorology, are positioned in polar orbit, but reaching this orbit requires greater power and the radiation is stronger.
The flight's website reported that "the highest inclination achieved by a manned space flight" to date "is that achieved by the Soviet Vostok 6 mission, which reached 65 degrees" with respect to the equator, and the poles cannot be seen from the International Space Station.
The flight has been named "FRAM 2" in tribute to a ship that was dedicated to polar exploration. The flight will use a SpaceX Dragon capsule equipped with an observation dome. The spacecraft will fly at an altitude of between 425 and 450 kilometers, according to billionaire Elon Musk's company.
The other three crew members will be Norwegian filmmaker Janneke Mikkelsen, Australian Eric Phillips, who has previously explored the poles as a guide, and German robotics researcher Rabia Ruge.
The crew is expected to conduct scientific experiments, such as taking the first X-ray images in space and studying a light phenomenon similar to the aurora borealis, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX has already carried out 13 manned flights in the past four years. The company is responsible for transporting NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, but it has also carried out a number of space tourism flights, including the 2021 Inspiration4 mission, funded by American billionaire Jared Isaacman, which was the first flight in human history limited to ordinary passengers and not including any professional astronauts.
Chun Wang recalled that "space travel was until 2021 the preserve of governments (...) but Inspiration 4 changed everything."
Another private flight, Polaris Dawn, is expected to launch on August 26, carrying a crew of four, including Isaacman, and is set to mark the first private spacewalk.
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