Latest news with #AxiomSpaceAx-4
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Axiom Space back on track for possible Space Coast launch next week
A leak in space and a leak on Earth have both been taken care of clearing the way for the next human spaceflight from the Space Coast. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with a new Crew Dragon spacecraft looks to bring the four private astronauts on the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission on a trip to the International Space Station as early as Thursday morning from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A during a launch window that runs from 4:45-5:05 a.m. The crew faced a series of delays already last week. A planned Monday launch was called off by weather, and a Tuesday attempt was delayed so SpaceX could fix a liquid oxygen leak found in the rocket's first-stage booster. While SpaceX retested its booster on Thursday with no leak detected, NASA announced it would have to delay the launch because of recent repairs to a years-old leak on the Russian side of the space station that needed to be monitored. 'Following the most-recent repair, pressure in the transfer tunnel has been stable,' reads an update from NASA released Saturday. 'Previously, pressure in this area would have dropped. This could indicate the small leaks have been sealed.' NASA said Roscosmos was still monitoring the pressure levels, but had allowed SpaceX and Axiom Space to target a new earliest launch opportunity. The mission would send former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson on her fifth trip to space. She is commanding three customers from three countries that have not flown astronauts in more than four decades. In the role of pilot is India's Shubhanshu Shukla while both Sławosz Uznański of Poland, a European Space Agency project astronaut, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are mission specialists. The quartet look to dock with the space station a day after launch for about a two-week stay on what would be the fourth visit by Axiom Space, and second commanded by Whitson. She previously flew three missions with NASA and already has a combined 675 days spent in space, which is both an American record as well as the record for women. The mission was originally targeting a 2024 launch, but has faced a series of delays including having to give up their planned ride, the Crew Dragon Endurance, to NASA's Crew-10 mission that flew in March. The tradeoff is they will fly on SpaceX's fifth and what's planned to be SpaceX's final Crew Dragon capsule, and that gives them the traditional honor of naming it once it reaches orbit. In addition to Endurance, the other Dragon capsules were named Endeavour, Resilience and Freedom. This marks the third human spaceflight from the Space Coast this year following the Crew-10 mission, whose astronauts remain on the space station to welcome Ax-4, and the private polar orbital Fram2 mission, which was also in March. Since its first human spaceflight in 2020, SpaceX has flown its four existing Crew Dragon spacecraft 17 times carrying 64 humans to space.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Live updates: top news of the day, June 11, 2025
SpaceX has said that it is standing down from Falcon 9's launch of Axiom Space Ax-4 mission which will carry Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's to the International Space Station. It was originally scheduled to be launched on June 10, which was postponed to today owing to unfavourable weather conditions. Meanwhile, India and the U.S. teams discussed issues pertaining to market access, digital trade, and customs facilitation during the week-long deliberations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, an official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted members of the multiparty delegations, part of India's diplomatic outreach in various capitals across the world following Operation Sindoor, at his official residence on Tuesday (June 10, 2025), telling them that the delegation by their very make up and strong advocacy reinforced India's message of unity in fighting terror.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Oxygen leak on SpaceX booster forces delay to Axiom Space mission to space station
SpaceX called off a planned Wednesday morning launch attempt of the crewed Axiom Space Ax-4 mission to deal with a liquid oxygen leak on the rocket booster. 'Standing down from tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections,' SpaceX posted on X late Tuesday. 'Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date.' The Ax-4 mission was aiming for an 8 a.m. liftoff with weather concerns looking to potentially delay the flight, but in the end hardware issues made those moot. Now forced to wait are Axiom Space employee and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson commanding a crew customers paid for by the governments of India and Hungary as well as Poland through the European Space Agency. 'Human spaceflight's really core to SpaceX's ultimate mission and flying crew safely is always our top priority,' said SpaceX's William Gerstenmaier, vice president of Build and Flight Reliability, during a Monday press call when he first discussed finding the leak. 'Spaceflight is really hard, and we're learning every day. The more we fly, the more we learn.' He said SpaceX had first detected the leak during the booster's previous flight, which was its debut launch in late April. 'We had not fully repaired the booster during refurbishment, or we didn't, actually, didn't find the leak and didn't get it corrected,' he said. At the time, he was confident SpaceX would have the rocket ready for the Wednesday attempt. 'We've gone out to the launch pad. We're continuing to troubleshoot that. We should get that completed (Monday) and we will have that back in configuration,' he said. 'We're installing a purge that will essentially mitigate the leak if it still continues, if we see it on launch day. So we will be fully ready to go fly.' In the end, SpaceX opted to hold off what would have been its third human spaceflight mission of the year following the March launches of the Crew-10 mission to the space station and the polar orbital mission Fram2. 'I think this shows the difficulty of getting ready. You can always be prepared, but doing the testing, doing the dry runs, doing the activities with the crew to make sure we are really ready, is tremendously important because we always learn something,' he said. Dana Weigel, NASA's International Space Station program manager, said any delay this week should not pose too much of an issue. 'We have launch opportunities all the way through June 30,' she said, and then a break until about the second week in July. 'So plenty of opportunities to fly to these people.' The mission aims to dock with the station the day after launch and then spend about two weeks on board before returning for splashdown off the California coast. It would be the fourth trip for Axiom Space to the station and second for Whitson for the company. Ax-4 would be her fifth trip to space overall and she would add to the more than 675 days in space she's already experienced in her career. That's the most for any American as well as the most for any woman in history. The three customers are India's Shubhanshu Shukla, taking the role of pilot, while Hungary's Tibor Kapu and Poland's Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski are mission specialists. None of those countries have had astronauts fly to space in more than four decades.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
Standing down from Falcon 9's launch of Ax-4: SpaceX
SpaceX has said that it is standing down from Falcon 9's launch of Axiom Space Ax-4 mission which will carry Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's to the International Space Station. 'SpaceX is standing down from Falcon 9's launch of Axiom Space's Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, June 11, to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections. Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date,' SpaceX said. The last update by the American space technology company on late Tuesday (June 10, 2025) night said that 85% of the weather is favourable for the launch of Axiom Space Ax-4 mission. 'Weather is 85% favorable for liftoff, with teams continuing to monitor high-winds in the ascent corridor,' SpaceX said in its last update prior to postponing the launch. ISRO also said that the launch has been postponed. 'As part of launch vehicle preparation to validate the performance of booster stage of Falcon 9 launch vehicle, seven second of hot test was carried out on the launch pad. It is understood that LOX leakage was detected in the propulsion bay during the test. Based on the discussion on this topic by ISRO team with the experts of Axiom and SpaceX it has been decided to correct the leak and carry out necessary validation test before clearing for the launch. Hence the launch of Axiom 04 slated for 11th June 2025 for sending first Indian Gaganyatri to ISS is postponed, ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan said.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Quarantined ahead of 5th trip to space, Whitson inducted with trailblazer Harris to Astronaut Hall of Fame
MERRITT ISLAND — Four-time spaceflight veteran Peggy Whitson had a good excuse for not showing up Saturday for her own induction ceremony to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. She's in quarantine to go to space again. Whitson is slated to command the private Axiom Space Ax-4 mission flying in a new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft set to launch as early as June 8. So her presence at the ceremony held under the suspended Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was purely virtual. 'Please know that my heart is with you. It is a privilege to be a part of such an esteemed group of individuals who have dedicated their lives to exploring the unknown,' she said in a message recorded at an undisclosed location nearby. Fellow inductee and two-time space shuttle astronaut Bernard Harris, who became the first Black person to perform a spacewalk, was on hand, though. He was joined by dozens of former astronauts and NASA officials as both his and Whitson's plaques were revealed — becoming the 110th and 111th members of the hall of fame created in 1990 by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and represented at the visitor complex with its own building honoring inductees. While both had significant careers with NASA, Whitson has spent a little bit more time in space — 37 times more. Chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1996, Whitson's first trip to space was in 2002 on Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-111 for her first of four stays on board the International Space Station. She flew home on STS-113, also on Endeavour, and then returned twice on Soyuz missions in 2007 and 2016. She became the first female commander of the space station — and to date is its only two-time commander. After retiring from NASA she joined private company Axiom Space and commanded its second commercial mission Axiom 2 in 2023. The four trips have amounted to more than 675 days in space — giving her the the all-time record for women in space, as well the record for an American astronaut. That total is set to grow by another two weeks once Ax-4 is completed. 'I applied to NASA's astronaut training program four times over nine years, and was denied. After 10 years and my fifth try of applying, I finally made it. It's only in retrospect that I can say those years of rejection were good for me,' she said. 'Those years of being refused a chance at my dream gave me an incredible experience as a leader, a builder of teams and a member of international partnerships. 'As it turned out, all of those were critical to my career as an astronaut — each mission, each spacewalk and each experiment conducted on board the International Space Station has been a step toward understanding our universe and improving life here on Earth.' Harris was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and flew his first mission — STS-55 — on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1993 followed by STS-63 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995. The second flight, a dress rehearsal flight for docking missions with the Russian space station Mir, wasn't supposed to feature a spacewalk but the dominoes fell into place setting up Harris' landmark experience. 'In truth, I didn't know i was the first African American until I got back inside and I got the call that President Clinton wanted to talk to me,' he said. 'I kind of went like, 'What for?'' Both 68-year-old Harris born in Temple, Texas in 1956, and 65-year-old Whitson, born in Beaconsfield, Iowa in 1960, cited the Apollo 11 moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as their inspiration to become astronauts. 'The moon landing, when I was 9 years old, seemed to make space attainable,' Whitson said. 'My 9-year-old self thought that astronaut had to be the ultimate job. 'So thanks to the moon landing, maybe even a little bit Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, as well as my first ride in the Cessna 150 with my Dad, that spark grew into a passion for space exploration.' Harris, who was 13 when history was made, said he wrestled with other events of the time. 'I was old enough to go through the early 60s, the civil rights movement,' he said. 'I could turn one channel and see some of the greatest accomplishments of human beings at that time and turn the channel and see Blacks fighting for their right to vote or to exist depending on what part of the country that they were in.' He said he still marvels at how his 13-year-old mind was able to meld those events together. 'I came to the conclusion that even though I didn't see anybody who looked like me in the program — there were no women in the program, no people of color in the program that we could see … But I decided that if I didn't see someone who looked like me I would be the first to try and go break that ceiling.'
