Private Ax-4 Mission Postponed Due to SpaceX Capsule Problems

The private Axiom 4 mission to the International Space Station, initially scheduled for the end of May, has been postponed : SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule intended to carry the 4 crew members is not yet ready , and the launch has therefore been postponed to no earlier than June 8 .

The mission is scheduled to launch from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. “After reviewing the International Space Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are modifying launch opportunities for several future missions,” the U.S. space agency wrote in a statement released May 14: “The schedule changes will provide additional time to finalize mission plans , spacecraft readiness, and logistics.”

The Crew Dragon capsule that will carry the Ax-4 mission to the ISS is designated C213 : it is the fifth and final reusable shuttle built by Elon Musk's company and should have initially been ready by the end of 2024. The Crew-10 flight last March should have taken place with this capsule, but SpaceX encountered some problems with the propulsion and environmental control systems , which therefore had to be replaced. The operation required the dismantling of a large part of the vehicle and so, to avoid delays, the Crew-10 mission departed on another model of the Crew Dragon, called C210.

Axiom Space's fourth mission will carry former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson to the ISS for about two weeks, on her fifth trip to the Space Station and her second with the private company, along with Indian Shubhanshu Shukla, Polish Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, and Hungarian Tibor Kapu: for all three it will be their first spaceflight.