Florida: The Axiom-4 mission, which was scheduled for the International Space Station (ISS) on June 19 after multiple postponements, has again been postponed. As per the latest update, the astronaut mission to the space station will not be possible before Sunday, June 22.
"NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are now targeting no earlier than Sunday, June 22, for launch of the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 4," Axiom Space said in a statement.
The mission was postponed this time due to repair works by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at ISS. "The change in a targeted launch date provides NASA time to continue evaluating space station operations after recent repair work in the aft (back) most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module," Axiom Space stated.
The mission will carry Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the ISS. Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission.
Shukla will serve as the pilot. The two mission specialists are European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Sławosz 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.
