Elon Musk’s SpaceX Launches Private Mission Backed by Cryptocurrency Investor

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is ready to launch FRAM2, its new crewed mission, which has been fully funded by Bitcoin billionaire Chun Wang. The project is a significant step toward the growing convergence of bitcoin and space exploration, and it will embark on an unprecedented polar orbit mission. 

Wang, prominently known for his revolutionary activities in the world of cryptocurrencies, is now interested in space travel. His participation in the FRAM2 mission is a milestone for the rapidly expanding private spaceflight industry. The flight into space will be aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2025, and will be the first manned flight to be entirely funded by a private bitcoin investor. 

A New Era of Private Investment in Space Exploration

The Telegraph reports that a bitcoin investor, Wang, who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers; Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge and Eric Philips, blasted off Monday night on the first spaceship to carry people over the North and South poles. Chun Wang, a Chinese-born entrepreneur, hurtled into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket steered southward over the Atlantic, putting the space tourists on a path never flown before in 64 years of human spaceflight. They will fly above the North and South Poles of Earth and undertake research on the effects of spaceflight on human health over a period of three to five days.

Taking to his X account (formerly Twitter) Wang wrote:

“Yes, I’ve been looking forward to this mission for 2.5 years now. From mission proposal, planning, trajectory design, to crew selection, everything has been done by the customer. And now, here we are!” 

He further added, praising ispiration4x that earlier it was nearly impossible and unheard of that a private individual could charter a Space Shuttle, but now “For the first time in spaceflight history, a private individual could rent an entire spacecraft, planned, designed, and executed their own very personal mission with clear objectives. It should never be underrated.” 

In 2023, Wang proposed the idea of a polar flight to SpaceX, two years after U.S. tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman completed the first of two chartered flights with Elon Musk’s company.

The Fram2 mission takes its name from the ship that helped explorers reach Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions for the very first time. The Fram ship was employed by Norwegian explorers between 1893 and 1912 and now lies preserved in a museum in Oslo, Norway. 

According to CNN, the Fram2 crew will remain in orbit for three to five days.  First to fly over Earth’s polar regions in the history of human spaceflight, they will try to capture peculiar video from their windows as they fly around the planet from pole to pole. The crew plans on conducting novel experiments, like the first human X-rays in space, on the flight and have bought dozens of cameras with them. 

Jackie Wattles from CNN writes that the crew is also planning on growing mushrooms in the International Space Station and watching northern lights. One of the crew members, Jannicke Mikkelsen,  who is also a Filmmaker, is all set to take some raw pictures of the dazzling Northern Lights or Aurora from space with her cameras. 

According to Dr. Eric Donovan, a specialist on auroras, and Steve from the University of Calgary’s physics and astronomy department, the idea of compiling a fresh record of observations is exciting. Talking to CNN, he said, “That’s one of the things that might be advantageous about self-funded spaceflight: you can do whatever you want because it’s self-funded.”