The launch of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), has been postponed once again, as NASA and its partners continue with ongoing technical evaluations.
The mission, a joint effort involving NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX, will no longer lift off on Sunday, 22 June, with a new launch date expected to be announced in the coming days.
Among the international crew is Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who will serve as the pilot on this mission.
Shukla is set to lead a series of space-based experiments focused on food and nutrition, developed through a partnership between ISRO, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and NASA. The studies aim to support research into sustainable life-support systems, an essential area for long-term human presence in space.
The Ax-4 launch has now been delayed multiple times. Initially scheduled for 29 May, the mission was pushed to 8 June and then successively to 10, 11, and 19 June, before the latest postponement.
The current delay is linked to continued assessments of recent repair work on the aft section of the Russian Zvezda service module aboard the ISS.
Commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, now Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space, the mission also includes European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts Sławosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary as mission specialists.
The crew is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
