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Watch SpaceX's history-making Fram2 astronaut mission return to Earth today

two men and two women smile while on board a space capsule in earth orbit

The four astronauts of SpaceX's private Fram2 mission over Earth's poles. From left: Chun Wang, Eric Phillips, Rabea Rogge and Jannicke Mikkelsen. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX's Fram2, the first crewed mission ever to orbit our planet over the poles, will return to Earth today (April 4), and you can watch the action live.

Fram2's Crew Dragon capsule, named Resilience, is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California today around 12:19 p.m. EDT (1619 GMT).

SpaceX will webcast the homecoming live via its website and X account, beginning about an hour prior to splashdown.

Fram2 launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday night (March 31), sending four spaceflight rookies to orbit.

That quartet is Maltese cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, who funded and commands Fram2; vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway; pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany; and Australian Eric Philips, mission specialist and medical officer.

Fram2 has been conducting 22 science experiments as it circles Earth, including one called MushVroom, which is attempting to grow mushrooms in orbit for the first time.

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map showing three spots off the coast of california where a space capsule may splash down

Fram2 is SpaceX's 17th crewed mission overall, and the sixth flown for private customers. The other 11 have been flights to and from the International Space Station for NASA.

Fram2 will be the company's first astronaut mission to land in the Pacific Ocean. Its predecessors all splashed down off Florida, but SpaceX is now shifting returns to the West Coast to minimize the chance that chunks of Crew Dragon's expendable trunk could damage property or hurt people during reentry.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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