Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's Axiom 4 Mission Launch Postponed Again
The Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, has been postponed due to a leak in SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket.
Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, has again been postponed.
According to the details, the mission was postponed after engineers sought more time to repair a leak in SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket.
SpaceX announced that it was 'standing down" from the Falcon-9 launch of the Axiom-4 mission to allow repairs of the liquid oxygen leak identified during the post-static booster inspections.
'Standing down from tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections," SpaceX said in a post on X.
'Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date," SpaceX said.
On Tuesday, a day before the launch, SpaceX, NASA and Axiom Space were closely watching weather patterns at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Addressing a pre-launch press conference, SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier said engineers had fixed some snags in the Falcon-9 rocket that were discovered during the static fire test and had gone unnoticed during the post-flight refurbishment of boosters.
Gerstenmaier said engineers had discovered a lock leak that was previously seen on the booster during its entry on the last mission and was not fully repaired during the refurbishment.
On Monday, ISRO chairman V Narayanan said that due to weather conditions, the launch of the Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to the ISS was postponed from June 10 to June 11.
The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission comprises Commander Peggy Whitson, pilot Shukla and specialists Tigor Kapu of Hungary and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland.
The 14-day mission will 'realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary.
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