SpaceX's next private astronaut launch to ISS, Ax-4, pushed back to June 10
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The next astronaut launch to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed again.
That liftoff — which will kick off Ax-4, the fourth crewed mission by Houston company Axiom Space — had been scheduled for this coming Sunday (June 8). But that's no longer the plan.
Axiom Space announced via X today (June 3) that the new target is next Tuesday (June 10). The four-astronaut mission will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida that day at 8:22 a.m. EDT (1222 GMT).
It's the second shift to the right for Ax-4 in the last few weeks. Axiom had been working toward a May 29 launch, but that got pushed to June 8 in the middle of last month as part of a series of ISS schedule adjustments.
Axiom Space's X post today didn't give a reason for the two-day slip to June 10.
The Ax-4 crew consists of commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who has spent more time in space than any other American (and currently serves as Axiom's director of human spaceflight); pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India; Polish mission specialist Sławosz Uznański of the European Space Agency; and Hungarian mission specialist Tibor Kapu.
Ax-4 will be triply historic, marking the first time that anyone from India, Poland or Hungary has lived on board the ISS.
Related stories:
— SpaceX Dragon carrying Ax-3 astronauts splashes down in Atlantic to end longest private spaceflight for Axiom Space
— Axiom Space: Building the off-Earth economy
— Axiom Space eyes the moon while continuing to dream big in Earth orbit
The quartet will ride to the ISS in a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. They're expected to spend about two weeks aboard the orbiting lab, during which time they'll conduct about 60 science experiments.
They'll then ride the Dragon back to Earth, arriving home with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
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