First private SpaceX polar mission splashes down near California

A SpaceX capsule carrying four private astronauts who orbited the north and south poles landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California on Friday.

It was the first human spaceflight to circle the globe above the poles and the first Pacific splashdown for a space crew in 50 years, SpaceX said. 

The "Fram2" mission, which was charted for an undisclosed price by Bitcoin investor Chun Wang, began Monday night when the quartet blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday night in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.