SpaceX on Monday (Mar 31) launched the first human space flight directly over Earth's polar regions. It is a privately funded orbital mission involving four astronauts, including mission commander Chun Wang, vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, vehicle pilot Rabea Rogge and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips. 

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SpaceX shared video which showed the powerful Falcon 9 rocket roaring upward and beginning its journey toward Earth's North and South Poles. 

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SpaceX, the American space technology company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said that the Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station (ISS), Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit and Polaris Dawn, the first commercial mission to conduct an extra-vehicular activity from Dragon. 

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The space company informed that this will be the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 and two Starlink missions. 

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Watch the video here: 

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What are mission objectives? 

Dragon and the crew will fly over Earth's polar regions for the first time and investigate the planet from a polar orbit during their multi-day trip. 

Additionally, they will carry out 22 research projects aimed at improving humanity's capacity for extended space travel and to get a better understanding of health in space. 

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The crew of Fram2 intends to grow mushrooms in microgravity, conduct workout research to preserve muscle and skeletal mass and take the first x-ray in space during its time in orbit. 

The crew also intends to successfully return to Earth and then leave the Dragon spacecraft without further medical or operational support, which will aid researchers in assessing astronauts' capacity to carry out functional activities without assistance following both brief and extended space missions. 

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(With inputs from agencies)