No one saw Earth's poles from space in the more than 400 human spaceflight missions preceding Fram2. The closest any crew mission has gotten to the poles was the Soviet Union's Vostok 6 mission in 1963, when Valentina Tereshkova's spacecraft reached a latitude of 65.1 degrees.

The international all-civilian Fram2 crew is the first in space history to fly to orbit with no licensed pilot or trained astronaut on board.

A SpaceX spacecraft carrying four astronauts is on a pioneering journey circling Earth over its poles after launching Monday night from Florida.