SpaceX is scheduled to launch a first-of-its-kind mission that will carry four private astronauts — or depending on how you see it, glorified space tourists — to orbit above the Earth's poles. Named "Fram2" after the Norwegian ship that made expeditions to both the Earth's poles around the turn of the 20th century,

The private Fram2 mission lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (March 31) at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 GMT on April 1), sending the Crew Dragon capsule "Resilience" into a polar orbit with a quartet of spaceflight rookies aboard.

The crew will observe Earth's polar regions 430 kilometers above the surface, allowing the Crew Dragon Resilience to travel from the North to South Pole under an hour.