Bitcoin investor booked SpaceX flight to travel to North and South Pole, know everything

One of the bitcoin investors has booked a SpaceX flight to take him and three others to the North and the South Pole in a trip that took place on Monday night. It is the first rocket journey to take humans to the North and the South Pole.

China-born entrepreneur Chun Wang flew from NASA's Kennedy Space Center into space. SpaceX's Falcon rocket flew south over the Atlantic Ocean. It had never been done before in 64 years of manned space flight. But Wang will not disclose what he paid Elon Musk's SpaceX to carry him on his three-and-a-half-day space trip.

The first part of his trip — from the state of Florida to the South Pole — would be less than half an hour. At a scheduled altitude of about 270 miles (430 kilometers), his independent capsule would circle the planet in about an hour and a half, taking 46 minutes to go from one pole to the other.

Wang has visited the polar regions in person in the past and is making the trip on SpaceX's rocket because he wants to see them from space. Now a citizen of Malta, he brought three guests with him. They include Norwegian filmmaker Jannike Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogg,e and Australian polar guide Eric Phillips.

Mikkelsen, the first Norwegian to fly to space, has flown over the poles before, but at a much lower altitude. She was part of a record-breaking 2019 mission that flew around the world over the poles in a Gulfstream jet to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing. The crew has planned two dozen experiments—including the first human-assisted X-ray taken in space. The team brought more cameras than usual to document their journey, called Frame2, named after a more than 100-year-old Norwegian polar research ship.

SpaceX's Kiko Donchov said last week that the company is constantly refining its training so that "normal people" without a traditional aerospace background can climb aboard the capsule.

Wang and his crew liken the polar flight to camping in the wilderness. "Space flight is becoming increasingly routine, and honestly, I'm happy to see that," Wang said last week via SpaceX.

Wang said he has been counting his flights since his first flight in 2002, flying on planes, helicopters and hot air balloons in a bid to visit every corner of the world. He has visited more than half of the world's population so far. This is his 1,000th flight via SpaceX.