The much-delayed Axiom-4 business mission to the International Space Station, carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, is now focusing on a launch on June 19, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) introduced on Saturday (June 14, 2025).
The Axiom Space mission was to blast-off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 11, however needed to be delayed first on account of a gas leak in SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket after which on account of a leak within the Russian part of the International Space Station (ISS).
“During a follow-on coordination meeting between ISRO, Axiom Space, and SpaceX, it was confirmed that the liquid oxygen leak observed in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle has been successfully resolved,” the ISRO mentioned in a press release.
“Separately, Axiom Space informed that they are working closely with NASA to assess the pressure anomaly in the Zvezda Service Module on board the International Space Station,” it mentioned.
“Axiom Space is now targeting June 19, 2025, for the launch of the Ax-04 mission,” ISRO mentioned.
The astronauts have been initially scheduled for lift-off on May 29, which was delay to June 8, June 10 and June 11, when SpaceX, the suppliers of the launch rocket and the house capsule, detected a liquid oxygen leak within the Falcon-9 rocket.
Former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, will command the business mission, whereas ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will function the pilot.
The two mission specialists are European Space Agency (ESA) undertaking astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The 14-day mission will “realise the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary.
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Published – June 14, 2025 12:27 pm IST
