Axiom-4 mission carrying Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla aims to lift-off on Wednesday
Left to right: Tibor Kapu of Hungary, ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla of India, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, and ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland | SpaceX
United States's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Tuesday that they are aiming to launch the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station during the early hours on Wednesday. This is the seventh time the space agency aiming to launch the four-member crew mission to the ISS.
In a statement on Tuesday, NASA said, "NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are targeting 2:31 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, June 25, for the launch of the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 4."
"The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket," the space agency said. The mission carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla marks the return to space for India, Hungary and Poland.
The space mission includes crew members from NASA, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the European Space Agency. Peggy Whitson, director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, is commanding the commercial mission and ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is the mission pilot. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are the mission specialists.
Though a launch was scheduled for June 22, it was called off owing to repair works in one of the modules of ISS. NASA called off the launch saying it needed additional time to continue evaluating ISS operations after recent repair work in the aft (back) most segment of the orbital laboratory’s Zvezda service module.
The mission was originally scheduled for lift-off on May 29 but was then put off to June 8, then June 10 and June 11, when engineers detected a liquid oxygen leak in the boosters of the Falcon-9 rocket and NASA also detected leaks in the ageing Russian module of the International Space Station, PTI reported.
The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The targeted docking time is approximately 7am Thursday, 26 June, NASA said.
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