Woman becomes first Norwegian astronaut

Jannicke Mikkelsen will fly around the Earth with three other astronauts on SpaceX’s Fram2 mission. It is the first manned space flight to fly over both polar regions.

The 38-year-old is a cinematographer specializing in 3D and emerging film technologies. On the mission, she will serve as commander and shoot movies.

– I aim to create a lot of new things. But the most important thing will be to take pictures of the Arctic and Antarctic, she tells forskning.no.

The mission, named Fram2 and planned to last three to five days, is being carried out by Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX and will be the company’s sixth manned spaceflight, which will include studying auroral phenomena. The crew will study green fragments and purple bands of continuous jets comparable to the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), which has been measured at an altitude of about 400-500 kilometers above the Earth’s atmosphere.

Together with Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge from Germany will join as a mission specialist. Eric Philips from Australia will be the pilot, while Chun Wang will be the mission commander and also the financier. This will be the first spaceflight for each of the crew members, according to SpaceX.

It was also Wang who contacted Mikkelsen ahead of the mission. They met when they both lived in Svalbard and often discussed space and also how Mikkelsen’s expertise could be useful for a space mission.

– Suddenly he sends me a message on Instagram and asks if I want to go on a space trip, says the 38-year-old.

Applied for a job at NASA at the age of 12

Mikkelsen has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood. At the age of 12, she called NASA directly and applied for a job mapping landscapes in 3D, something she already knew. Her knowledge impressed the space agency so much that Mikkelsen moved on to the next round.

– My mom had to call and say I was only 12 years old, she says.

In the past, Mikkelsen has also set a Guinness World Record for the fastest flight around the Earth in polar orbit with the so-called One More Orbit mission.

The mission will also conduct research on the effects of spaceflight on the human body, including taking X-rays in space, which has never been done before. Behavior will also be studied in order to develop tools needed to prepare humanity for future long-duration spaceflights.

– We belong to the group of astronauts who contribute to space research through commercial space travel. We are among the first ten non-governmental astronauts employed by a space agency, said Mikkelsen.

The mission will launch from Florida in the United States. However, it is unclear when, but at the earliest by the end of the year.