KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Everything had been looking good for a liftoff of the Axiom Mission 4 carrying 4 astronauts to the International Space Station at 8 AM ET on Wednesday, June 11, until SpaceX engineers discovered a LOX leak in the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket – upon further review of data from a static fire test of the first stage Merlin 1D engines that was conducted on Sunday afternoon June 8.
“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. Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date,” SpaceX tweeted.
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX decided to standing down from the launch opportunity on Wednesday, June 11, of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station “to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair a liquid oxygen leak identified during post-static fire Falcon 9 rocket inspections,” NASA announced in a message and a blog post late on June 10.
“A new launch date for the fourth private astronaut mission will be provided once repair work is complete, pending range availability.”
Earlier in the sweltering afternoon of June 10 the media including Ken Kremer of Space UpClose had set up remote cameras to capture upclose images of the rocket launch from Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Enjoy our photos of the integrated SpaceX Falcon 9 and brand new Crew Dragon – the 5th in the SpaceX fleet of Crew Dragons.
This 4th commercial mission by Axiom Space is led by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson – on her 5th spaceflight.
3 other rookies crewmates round out the crew of 4 from India, Hungary and Poland.
Peggy is currently Americas most experienced astronaut with 675 days in space!
Barely one week ago she was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
The 4 person international crew from US, India, Poland and Hungary will conduct over 60 science experiments – including research on diabetes.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot.
The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
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