 "Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force with Commander Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, the four-member crew of Axiom Mission 4 set to launch aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. News18")
The Axiom-4 space mission has been postponed for the second time this week, with the launch now being pushed away to a later date from June 22. The new date of the blast off has not been announced yet.
On Thursday, Nasa said in a statement that it needs more time to assess recent repair works done on the aft (rear) section of the ISS’s Zvezda service module. Because many systems on the space station are interconnected, engineers want to ensure it is fully prepared to support a new crew of astronauts, the statement added.
The international crew is undergoing pre-flight quarantine in Florida and will stay prepared for launch until clearance is given.
About the mission
The Ax-4 crew includes astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary — each representing their country’s first mission to the space station. According to Axiom Space, it also marks the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years.
Shukla will be the second Indian astronaut to fly to space since 1984 after Rakesh Sharma. He is part of Axiom Space’s fourth private space mission, marking a significant moment for India’s space exploration in collaboration with Nasa.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsShukla will conduct seven experiments in space that are aimed at encouraging microgravity research in India, which hopes to build its space station by 2035 and send astronauts to the moon by 2047.
The Ax-4 crew will spend 14 days orbiting the laboratory.
NASA has previously overseen three private astronaut missions to the ISS. Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) took place in April 2022, lasting 17 days. Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) followed in May 2023, with four private astronauts spending eight days in orbit. The most recent mission, Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), launched in January 2024, with its crew staying aboard the ISS for 18 days.