Eric Philips

Eric Philips OAM (born 30 April 1962) is an Australian polar explorer, adventurer, polar guide and private astronaut.

Biography Philips was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1962. His parents, Keith and Josephine, emigrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1957. Philips studied at the University of South Australia, attaining a Diploma of Teaching, a Bachelor of Education and Graduate Diploma in Outdoor Education. He was the Director of Outdoor Education at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School.

Career Philips has completed ski expeditions across icecaps on Greenland, Ellesmere Island, Iceland, Svalbard and Patagonia icecaps. He was the first Australian, together with companion Jon Muir, to ski to both the North Pole and South Pole. This 84-day, 1425 km ski expedition utilised traction kites to harness the wind. A film, Into the Teeth of the Blizzard, was produced about this expedition. Philips also guided a 925 km commercial ski expedition for Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions from the Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole in 2007–08 and in 2012 guided Pat Farmer on his Antarctic leg from Union Glacier camp to the South Pole. He has also skied 4 new routes and variations to the South Pole, via the Shackleton (1999), Reedy (2017), Kansas (2018) and Support Force (2023) Glaciers, completing the last at age 61 i.e., to fly over Earth's North and South poles. He is the first astronaut to fly to orbit as an Australian, although both Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas were Australian born and flew on NASA missions after being naturalised as US citizens. On 1 April 2025, the Fram2 mission launched and it lasted for 3.5 days.

Awards and honours In 2004 Eric was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for achievements in polar exploration. He is the co-founder and former president of the International Polar Guides Association (IPGA) and co-creator of the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme (PECS).