In April 2025, four private astronauts on SpaceX’s Fram2 mission became the first humans ever to circle Earth in a true polar orbit, flying directly over both poles — a route no government crewed space program had taken in more than six decades of human spaceflight.

In April 2025, four private astronauts on SpaceX’s Fram2 mission became the first humans ever to circle Earth in a true polar orbit, flying directly over both poles — a route no government crewed space program had taken in more than six decades of human spaceflight.

Human spaceflight had crossed oceans, docked with stations, circled the Moon and lived in orbit for more than a year before anyone did something deceptively simple: fly people straight over both poles of Earth. That changed with Fram2. Launched by SpaceX at the end of March 2025 and flying through early April, the private mission carried four astronauts into a true polar orbit aboard Crew Dragon Resilience. Instead of following the lower-inclina…