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.

Fram2, a first-of-its-kind private mission to send four astronauts into polar orbit around Earth, is about to launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The first crewed space mission to explore Earth’s polar regions is getting ready to head back home. The four-person Fram2 crew launched into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday. Their Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to splash down off the coast of California at 12:19 p.m.