NASA has officially announced that the private AX-4 mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center on June 19, bringing four astronauts to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle to conduct more than 60 scientific research and experiments.
Originally scheduled for June 10, the company’s Axiom Space mission was first postponed due to bad weather, then delayed due to a propellant leak in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. On June 10, SpaceX officially canceled the launch set for June 11, stating that the team would take longer to repair the leak and complete validation tests. A third postponement was caused by an air leak in the Russian Zvezda segment of the Space Station.
The problem involved the PrK structure, located at the end of the Russian module, which connects the shuttle docking point. NASA explained that this was an anomaly that had been known for years, which seemed to have been overcome as the pressure had remained stable. However, the detection of a new leak made it necessary to work on the hatch seals. In a post on social media, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said it had eliminated the leak. This, NASA noted, now allows a new launch opportunity to be planned for the AX-4 mission.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the opportunity to again call – via social media – for an earlier ISS retirement in 2027 instead of 2030. “There are concerns about the long-term safety of the Space Station. Some of its parts are simply getting too old, and obviously this risk increases over time. That’s why the ISS should be decommissioned within two years.”
Musk added that “if necessary, Starship missions into deep space with astronauts can ensure continuity of operations,” referring to the system consisting of the Super Heavy rocket and the Starship shuttle, both from his company SpaceX and still in the testing phase.
