SpaceX's next private astronaut launch to ISS, Ax-4, delayed to June 8
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We'll have a wait a bit longer to see the next private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) lift off.
NASA announced on Wednesday (May 14) that the target launch date for Ax-4, the fourth crewed flight to the ISS by Houston-based company Axiom Space, has been pushed from May 29 to June 8.
The delay is part of a series of ISS schedule adjustments, which will "provide more time to finalize mission plans, spacecraft readiness and logistics," agency officials wrote in an update on Wednesday.
Ax-4 will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying four people to the orbiting lab aboard a Dragon spacecraft.
That quartet will be led by record-setting former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who currently serves as Axiom's director of human spaceflight. Joining her are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Polish mission specialist Sławosz Uznański of the European Space Agency and mission specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
Ax-4 will mark the first time that anyone from those latter three countries lives aboard the ISS. The spaceflyers will conduct nearly 60 science investigations during the mission, which is expected to remain docked at the orbiting lab for about two weeks.
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
Two other ISS missions, both of them SpaceX flights, are affected by the newly announced rescheduling.
SpaceX's Crew-11 astronaut mission for NASA is now slated to launch no earlier than late July (rather than simply "July"), and the company's CRS-33 cargo flight is targeting a late August liftoff.
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