New Delhi: NASA and Axiom Space were yet to announce a new date for the launch of the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), involving India’s astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, after the lift-off was delayed due to a leak detected in SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.
“A new launch date for the fourth private astronaut mission will be provided once available,” a joint statement from Axiom Space and NASA said, announcing the postponement of the launch of the Axiom-4 mission.
The statement said as part of an ongoing investigation, NASA was also working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aftmost segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module.
“Cosmonauts aboard the space station recently performed inspections of the pressurised module’s interior surfaces, sealed some additional areas of interest, and measured the current leak rate. Following this effort, the segment is now holding pressure,” the statement said
The postponement of Axiom Mission 4 provides additional time for NASA and Roscosmos to evaluate the situation and determine whether any additional troubleshooting is necessary. NASA defers to Roscosmos to answer specific questions about the Zvezda module, the statement said.
Former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space Peggy Whitson will command the commercial mission, while Indian Space Research Organisation astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot.
The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew will lift off aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The 14-day mission will “realise the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary.
The Axiom-4 mission was originally scheduled for launch May 29. It was first postponed to June 8 and later to June 10.
June 10, the launch was postponed by a day due to bad weather in the flight path. June 11, SpaceX engineers detected a leak in the rocket’s booster, forcing them to delay the launch till the problem was resolved.
PTI
