Framonauts Splash Down Near California

The four crew members of Fram2, a private astronaut mission that circled the North and South Poles for the first time, are back home. Calling themselves “Framonauts,” they spent three-and-a-half days in space aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience. They returned to Earth today marking another first — the first Crew Dragon to splash down off the coast of California instead of Florida. SpaceX is moving all Dragon splashdowns to the West Coast to better control where remnants of the spacecraft’s “trunk” lands after it separates during reentry.

Fram2 made a picture perfect splashdown in SpaceX’s Oceanside landing zone at 12:19 pm ET (9:19 am local time). After launching at 9:47 pm ET on Monday, that gives them a flight duration of 3 days, 14 hours, and 32 minutes.

Splashdown of Dragon and the @framonauts confirmed – welcome back to Earth @satofishi, @astro_jannicke, @rprogge, and @Icetrek! pic.twitter.com/nkWzqenf9Q

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 4, 2025

Oceanside is one of three landing zones off the Southern California coast SpaceX will use for all Dragon splashdowns from now on so they can better control where Dragon’s “trunk” lands. The unpressurized trunk separates from the capsule during reentry to expose the heat shield.  The way they’ve been doing it since 2019 when they introduced a new version of the capsule (Dragon 2), the separation takes place while the capsule is still in orbit. The trunk remains in orbit until it makes an uncontrolled landing somewhere, sometime, on the planet. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589 on X and Bluesky) of Jonathan’s Space Report has a very useful chart of the fate of the trunks showing that in five cases debris was recovered on land, including the most recent Crew Dragon, Crew-9. They splashed down on March 18. The trunk reentered on March 24, with debris landing in Erg Chech, Algeria. SpaceX moved the splashdowns to Florida so the capsule would be closed to their refurbishment and launch facilities. They lose that advantage, but gain another — the weather in California is often better than Florida.

Fram2 is named after the Norwegian ship Fram that explored the Arctic and Antarctic between 1893 and 1912.

The four Fram2 crew members are from disparate backgrounds, but share enthusiasm for adventure and polar exploration. Mission Commander Chun Wang (@satofishi) is a Chinese-born cryptocurrency billionaire who is now a citizen of Malta and paid for the mission. He was joined by Norwegian cinematographer and Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (@astro_jannicke); German engineer and Arctic roboticist Rabea Rogge (@rprogge), Vehicle Pilot; and Australian explorer Eric Philips (@Icetrek), Mission Specialist and Medical Officer.

Chun posted on X that they all met on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard and “we love the ice.”

I often say Fram2 is a Svalbard mission. We @framonauts all met on Svalbard, and we love the ice. The mission was planned when I lived there, and we fly polar because, in an ISS-like orbit, we are unable to see where we live. From this perspective, the mission has perfectly… https://t.co/nwjpx4dTQ7

— Chun (@satofishi) April 4, 2025

They conducted 22 experiments during their mission, the last of which was getting themselves out of the capsule once it was aboard the recovery ship with less assistance than usual. SpaceX actually called it “unassisted,” but there were SpaceX team members inside and outside the capsule. The crew members did exit the hatch, stand up, and walk towards the medical bay by themselves, but with help just a step away.  The point of the experiment was that when astronauts first land on Mars, no one will be there to help them so they need to extract themselves. A Mars mission involves a journey of many months, not 3.5 days, but today could be considered a first step for SpaceX.

The @framonauts flew aboard Dragon’s 17th human spaceflight mission – with 66 crewmembers now having flown aboard the spacecraft – and became the first Dragon crew to splash down in the Pacific Ocean pic.twitter.com/HJWdz7gQWe

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 4, 2025

Other experiments included operating an x-ray machine, growing oyster mushrooms, and taking expert photographs of Earth. Mikkelsen is a professional cinematographer and posted stunning images on X during the flight, but the file sizes of others were too big and will be released later.

Proud to be able to bring to space some incredible cameras and lenses capturing the first images of the Arctic and Antarctic shot by humans from space. These videos are BIG in file size and we look forwards to sharing them with you post-mission splashdown. #fram2 pic.twitter.com/VqMuA1bI5x

— Jannicke Mikkelsen (@astro_jannicke) April 4, 2025

I promised Svalbard I would wave to everyone there when I flew over them! Hi Svalbard ???? and particular thank you to our auroral scientists and photographers #SolarMaxMission for participating in #Fram2 pic.twitter.com/12KqrnCsGM

— Jannicke Mikkelsen (@astro_jannicke) April 4, 2025

Flying over our launch site. pic.twitter.com/eHatUsOJ20

— Chun (@satofishi) April 3, 2025

Mikkelsen planned to take photos of aurora from orbit while more than 2 million citizen scientists and observatories took simultaneous images from below. Hopefully some of those will be available soon.  Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have taken amazing auroral images from their vantage point at 51.6 degrees inclination (the angle of the orbit to the equator), but Fram2 flew directly over the poles at 90 degrees.