UPDATE: SpaceX has scrubbed Wednesday’s launch attempt “to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections.” The article below will be updated with a new target launch date once it’s announced.
This week will see the fourth crewed launch by private firm Axiom Space.
The Texas-based astronaut mission company is again partnering with SpaceX to launch four astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, June 11, in the Ax-4 mission.
The crew will head to the International Space Station (ISS), where they’ll spend around two weeks living and working alongside the orbital outpost’s current inhabitants.
The Ax-4 crew includes members from India, Poland, and Hungary, marking each nation’s first mission to the space station in history and second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years.
Shubhanshu Shukla will be India’s first national astronaut to go to space since 1984; Sławosz Uznański will be the first Polish astronaut to reach orbit since 1978; and Hungarian Tibor Kapu will be the first person from his country to head to space since 1980.
The fourth crewmember, American Peggy Whitson, will command her second commercial human spaceflight mission, which will add to her record for the longest cumulative time in space by a U.S. astronaut.
“This historic mission underscores how Axiom Space is redefining the pathway to low-Earth orbit and elevating national space programs globally,” Axiom said prior to Tuesday’s launch.
Besides organizing privately funded crewed missions to the ISS, Axiom also has a contract with NASA to develop and attach modules to the space station, with plans for these modules to later form a free-flying commercial space station.
How to watch
SpaceX is targeting 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, June 11, for Falcon 9’s launch of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission to the ISS from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
If for whatever reason the launch is unable to proceed, a backup opportunity is available at 7:37 a.m. ET on Thursday, June 12.
A live webcast of the Ax-4 mission will begin at around 6 a.m. ET. You can watch it via the video player embedded at the top of this page.
For the latest mission updates, check SpaceX’s X account.
