After several delays, Nasa has announced that the Ax-4 mission, carrying Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, would be launch on June 25. This announcement comes today after days after Nasa postponed the much-awaited launch of the private mission, scheduled for June 22, for the seventh time.
The Ax-4 mission, originally set to blast off on May 29, has been continuously postponed because of technical glitches, bad weather and leaks at the International Space Station (ISS).
Nasa, Axiom Space, and SpaceX have now set a launch time on Wednesday at 12:01 pm (Indian time).
"The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will ride to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft following launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. The scheduled docking time is around 4:30 pm (India Time) Thursday, June 26," Nasa said in a statement.
Also read: Shubhanshu Shukla’s Ax-4 mission delayed again, no new date yet
Originally postponed to June 8 due to issues with the electrical harness of the Crew Dragon, the launch was subsequently delayed to June 9 since the Falcon-9 rocket experienced readiness issues. Later, unfavorable weather conditions further pushed the launch date to June 10.
An oxygen leak, along with other problems in the pre-launch tests, postponed the launch to June 11 and then to June 12 before it was postponed further to June 22 after the detection of leaks at the ISS.
Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is currently director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the next commercial mission. ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will be the mission pilot. Accompanying them as mission specialists are Sawosz Uznaski-Winiewski, a project astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
Also read: Axiom-4 mission put off as SpaceX detects leak in Falcon-9 rocket
In the meantime, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are standing ready at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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