The Axiom-4 mission, which was scheduled to take Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station on Tuesday, was re-postponed for fixing the leak in the Falcon-9 rocket of SpaceX.
SpaceX announced that he is “pulling back” the projection of Falcon-9 so that the static inspection of the rocket could find time for repair after the identity of liquid oxygen leakage in static inspection.
SpaceX said in an X post, “Once completed and the availability of the range, we will share a new launch date.”
ISRO president V Narayanan said that during the seven second hot test on the launch pad, the liquid oxygen leak was detected in the propulsion bay. The objective of the hot test was to certify the performance of the booster stage of the Falcon-9 launch vehicle.
Narayanan said, “The ISRO team discussed with experts from Achom and SpaceX and it was decided that the leak would be corrected and necessary verification tests would be conducted before the launch approval.”
The ISRO president said that therefore, the Acom-4 launch to be held on 11 June 2025 has been postponed, under which the first Indian sky will be sent to the International Space Station.
A spokesperson for the Axiom Space said that during the post-9 booster’s post-static fire investigation, SpaceX teams identified a liquid oxygen leakage, which requires additional work.
Axiom Space said in a statement, “SpaceX will continue to work closely with the Axiom Space and its partners.”
Commander Paigi Whitson, Pilot Shukla and expert Hungary’s Tigor Kapu and Poland Slavose Ujnansky-Vicenivsky were to leave on the Axiom-4 mission.
The 14 -day mission will realize the “return” of the human spacecraft for India, Poland and Hungary. The Axiom-4 mission was originally to be launched on 29 May. It was first deferred to 8 June and later till 10 June.
The launch was postponed for a day on 10 June due to bad weather in the flight road.
Addressing the launch-pre-press conference on Monday, SpaceX vice-president William Gertemeyer said that engineers had cured some flaws in the Falcon-9 rocket, which were found during the static fire test and no attention was received during the renewal after the boosters.
Gerstenmeyer said that engineers have detected a lock leak, which was seen during the booster in the previous mission, and was not completely repaired during renewal.
He said, “We are engaged in removing it. We should complete it today and we will bring it into configuration.
Garstenmeyer said that engineers have also detected the engine 5 thrust vector control problem and the components related to it have already been replaced.
