Australian polar adventurer turned astronaut Eric Philips takes part in historic SpaceX mission

Australia Broadcast Center

14-05-2025

Sitting under the night sky at Eric Philips' home in Victoria's high country, it is hard not to feel close to the cosmos.
"The stars are always alluring and the place of dreams, right?" he said.
"If anywhere you can let your imagination run wild it's up there, but for me it's no longer imagination.
"That's the bizarre thing, it's reality now."
Mr Philips is no stranger to extreme environments. As one of the world's leading polar experts, he and friend John Muir were the first Australians to ski to both the North and South Poles.
When 7.30 caught up with him he had just returned from his boldest adventure to date – private space travel.
Mr Philips became the first Australian to fly into space under the Australian flag as part of a chartered SpaceX mission in early April.
The mission was privately funded and commanded by former Chinese national Chun Wang, a crypto billionaire, now a citizen of Malta, who Mr Philips guided on a ski trip in the Arctic Circle in 2023.
"It's the most phenomenal tip a client could give me."
Mr Wang purchased the chartered spaceflight from Elon Musk's SpaceX for an undisclosed figure.
Mr Philips has described Mr Wang as a "denizen of the universe".
"He considers himself nomadic because he travels the world, visiting every country that he can and is a Bitcoin entrepreneur, that's how he made his money in order to pay for this mission," he said.
The mission, titled 'Fram2' after an early Norwegian polar research ship saw the crew become the first humans to complete an orbit of the North and South Poles.
Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen and German polar scientist Rabea Rogge were also on board the 'Dragon' capsule.
"It is an autonomous craft. Everything is planned by SpaceX, by ground control, mission control. It's uploaded into the system of the Dragon capsule and it will do everything from launch through to splashdown," Mr Philips said.
After a year of training the crew launched from the historic Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 1.
Their launch took them beyond the Kármán line, the boundary line 100 kilometres above sea-level where the atmosphere ends and outer space begins.
"It's the most immersive experience you could possibly imagine."
During the three-and-a-half-day mission in microgravity the crew completed 55 orbits of Earth.
"You see all of Earth, all of Earth below you … you can turn around in that dome and you are seeing the entire horizon," Mr Philips said.
"That feeling, I knew that would be profound in some way but I didn't know that it would affect me so emotionally.
"Looking at Earth from that perch and knowing that we have a pretty rough history of treating our planet the way we do, and with the current bickering and squabbling amongst our people down on Earth, that if everyone could have the opportunity to see this incredible planet from above, I think it would give people much more perspective over their lives and how we should treat our fellow citizens and the Earth itself."
While hurtling around the planet the crew conducted 22 research projects designed to pave the way for human long-haul space flight, including the first X-ray in space and the first attempt at growing mushrooms.
"There's a big push at the moment to get to Mars and perhaps to build a Mars colony and for humans to inhabit that, so these research projects all contribute to this next phase of human life," Mr Philips said.
Despite being in a hostile environment, Mr Philips said at no point did he feel close to death, except for when their spaceship re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
"Then you feel gravity start to take over and you are plummeting down to Earth at more than 500kph in absolute freefall," he said.
After a successful splashdown off the coast of California, the crew of Fram2 accomplished one final piece of history, becoming the first astronauts to complete an 'unassisted egress', an exit of the spacecraft without additional medical and operational assistance.
Just days after Mr Philip's mission another group took to the sky with private space company Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
An all-female crew, which included his fiancee Lauren Sanchez and pop singer Katy Perry, spent 11 minutes above the Earth.
Space travel is currently extremely expensive for both civil and private space agencies, but Mr Philips believes it will become more accessible.
He said SpaceX is developing a craft that will take hundreds of people into space.
"You can literally board that spaceship like you board an Airbus or a Boeing aircraft and fly internationally. That is in the not-too-distant future, and I can certainly see that happening," he said.
"That will ultimately bring the cost down and make space travel available to a wide group of people."
Now aged 62, Mr Philips said his celestial experience with SpaceX has ignited his passion for the universe.
"There is no question that I look at the night sky now from a different perspective and an acute longing to be back up there, it was such an intoxicating experience," he said.
"If I had the opportunity to go back tomorrow, I would take it."
Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.