Axiom-4 Mission (Ax-4)

Axiom Mission 4 Latest News

Just days after anticipation built around Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s participation in Axiom Mission 4, the launch has been postponed again.

About Axiom Mission 4

• Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) is the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), organized by Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA, SpaceX, and ISRO.
  • Objectives:
    • Enable commercial activities in low Earth orbit, including space tourism and private research.
    • Demonstrate the feasibility of commercial space stations as platforms for business and science.
    • Strengthen international collaboration in space exploration.
    • Conduct scientific experiments in microgravity, focusing on materials science, biology, Earth observation, and life sciences.
  • Launch Vehicle & Capsule: First flight of Crew Dragon C213—the fifth and final new Dragon capsule—to be launched atop a Falcon‑9 Block 5 from LC‑39A, Kennedy Space Centre.
  • Mission Timeline: Originally set for early June 2025, the mission was moved multiple times— then again postponed on June 11, due to the LOx leak, which caused further delay.
• Crew (4 total):
  • Peggy Whitson (USA)
  • Shubhanshu Shukla (India)
  • Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski (Poland)
  • Mission Specialist: Tibor Kapu (Hungary)
• Significance:
  • Marks India’s return to human spaceflight after 41 years, since Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 mission.
  • First government-sponsored flights to the ISS for India, Poland, and Hungary in over four decades.

Source: MINT

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