A few firsts This trip is privately funded, and such missions allow for SpaceX’s customers to spend their time in space as they see fit. For Fram2, the crew traveled to orbit prepared to carry out 22 research and science experiments, some of which were designed and overseen by SpaceX. Most of the research involves evaluating crew health. orbiter Upon the splashdown return off the coast of California, for example, the crew carried out an “egress experiment.”
That objective tested the passengers’ ability to exit their spacecraft on their own after returning to Earth. After most human spaceflight missions, astronauts are aided by personnel on the ground. (However, most of these missions carry astronauts to the space station, where they live in microgravity for months, which means returning crew must readapt to Earth’s gravity.) One at a time, the passengers tested getting out of their seats by themselves, taking off their foot rests, and bending down to grab their survival gear, which weighed about 35 pounds, according to Marissa Rosenberg, a senior medical research engineer at SpaceX, who provided commentary during a webcast of the Fram2 splashdown.
The egress experiment was just one of the “firsts” related to this splashdown. Another involved the landing site: A crewed SpaceX mission has never returned from space and splashed down off the coast of California. The company’s crewed missions so far have returned near Florida.
SpaceX has said it would move its recovery operations to the West Coast for safety reasons. The Dragon capsule had to eject a cylindrical attachment at its base — called the trunk — as it reentered the atmosphere. Returning from space in California helped ensure that piece of hardware was safely disposed of in the ocean, rather than risking its disposal over land.
What the Fram2 crew did in space Satellites are routinely launched into orbit around Earth’s poles. So while the Fram2 crew’s view from space had previously been captured, it was experienced through human eyes for the first time during this flight.
No crewed mission had ever traveled directly over the planet’s poles from Earth orbit. The frigid caps of our home planet are invisible to humans on board the International Space Station, for example, which orbits near Earth’s equatorial line.