First humans to orbit Earth’s poles capture breathtaking images of ‘pure white’ region during historic SpaceX mission

They’re seeing what no human has seen before.

The first civilian astronauts to orbit Earth’s polar region revealed the breathtaking view of the gleaming “pure white” tundra in the first-ever video taken from space during their historic SpaceX mission.

The stunning footage, taken early Wednesday morning by four spacefarers aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, captured the desolate snow-covered landscape of Antarctica as the Fram2 crew admired the tranquil scenery roughly 285 miles above the world’s southernmost and least-populated continent.

“Hello, Antarctica,” Chinese-born crypto billionaire Chun Wang, 43, posted on X with a six-minute video of the vivid landmass, during which his fellow travelers congratulated him for the groundbreaking achievement.

“Unlike previously anticipated, from 460 km above, it is only pure white, no human activity is visible.”

At one point in the video, Wang put his sock-covered feet on the spacecraft’s domed cupola window and started walking up and down with the bright, cloudy and powdery landscape floating in the background.

“We call it a spacewalk,” he quipped, causing the crew to erupt in laughter.

The crew shared a brief video of the frigid polar ice caps early Tuesday morning shortly after blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Monday night. They have since documented various parts of their exploration, including floating in the space capsule and chatting about the “desert” ice mass.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has since praised the space explorers on social media as “the first astronauts to orbit the poles.”

No human has ever traveled directly over the Earth’s poles from space, a trip that requires far more fuel than the usual flight paths that follow closer to the equator.

The Fram2 will aim to circle Earth at a trajectory that is exactly 90 degrees to the equator, giving the passengers a perfect view of the North and South Poles that have remained elusive from even the astronauts on the International Space Station, which flies at about 51.6 degrees.

None of the passengers aboard the Fram2 mission has ever been to space before.

“The ride to orbit was much smoother than I had anticipated,” Wang, who funded the mission, said in an X post Wednesday morning.

“Apart from the final minute before SECO, I barely felt any G-forces–it honestly felt like just another flight. I had imagined it would feel like being in an elevator that suddenly drops, but that sensation never came,” he said, referring to the Second-Stage Engine Cutoff.

“If I hadn’t set free Tyler, the polar bear zero-gravity indicator, I might not have realized we were already weightless.”

Wang, who lives in Malta, said the first few hours in orbit caused the crew to experience an uncomfortable wave of nausea and vomiting that left their stomachs uneasy as they dealt with a bout of motion sickness.

By the second morning, Wang said he felt “completely refreshed” as the space explorers ate breakfast, took X-rays and started to marvel at the South Pole.

Wang is joined by vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, of Norway; mission pilot Rabea Rogge, of Germany; and mission medical officer Eric Philips, of Australia; all hand-picked by the billionaire to fulfill his lifelong ambitions and curiosity of the polar regions.

The spacecraft will fly around the globe for three to five days, with the crew set to complete 22 science experiments related to human physiology in orbit for researchers back on Earth.

They are expected to splash down off the coast of California later this week.