Lightning flashed in the distance as storms rolled off shore, yet the launch occurred without delay. Original story: Tonight, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Fram2 crew into an orbit never flown by astronauts − around the North and South Pole.

SpaceX’s Fram2 mission is set for liftoff on Monday at 9:46 p.m. ET, launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch a private crew of astronauts on board a Dragon spacecraft, where they will spend three to five days admiring our planet from a unique polar orbit.

Fram2 will send four people from four different nations to low Earth orbit for three to five days. Those crewmembers — all of them spaceflight rookies — are mission commander Chun Wang of Malta, vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway, pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany, and Australian Eric Phillips, Fram2's medical officer and mission specialist.