Chennai, June 14 (UNI) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday said the deferred Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) piloted by decorated Indian astronaut Subhanshu Shukla, will now be launched on June 19 after the technical glitch due to
LOX leakage was successfully rectified.
In an update, ISRO said during a follow-on coordination meeting between ISRO, Axiom Space, and SpaceX, it was confirmed that the liquid oxygen leak observed in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle has been successfully resolved.
Separately, Axiom Space informed that they are working closely with NASA to assess the pressure anomaly in the Zvezda Service Module onboard the International Space Station.
Axiom Space is now targeting June 19, 2025 for the launch of the Ax-04 mission.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh in a post on X,which was shared by ISRO wrote "Launch date of the Axiom-4 mission carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla
to the International Space Station is, as of now, rescheduled for June 19, 2025."
"Also, Space X team has confirmed that all the issues, that led to earlier postponement of the launch, have been duly addressed", he said.
"Further update, if any , will be accordingly shared.#ISRO", the Minister said.
Yesterday, ISRO Chairman Dr V Narayanan said ISRO was working with Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX to address the technical glitch--leakage of LOX fuel--that led to postponement of AX-4 mission".
He said safety and mission integrity remain its top priorities.
In a post on X, he said "ISRO is working closely with Axiom Space, NASA, SpaceX as they responsibly address the ISS Zvezda module observation causing the Ax-4 delay. Safety and
mission integrity remain our top priorities."
The launch was scheduled to take off to ISS on a 14-day docking at ISS involving four crew members from India, US, Hungary and Poland, but was deferred after the LOX leak was detected during post static fibre booster inspections.
This is ISRO's first mission in over 40 years to ISS and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will be India's second national astronaut to go to space since 1984 after Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
Meanwhile, in another update, chronicling the mission's key developments, ISRO said "the launch of Axiom Mission-04 (Ax-04), which includes the launch of India’s first astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station, has been postponed."
The launch originally targeted on May 29, 2025 was deferred due to observation in electrical harness in Crew Dragon Module, to June 8, 2025
The launch was postponed by one day to June 09, 2025 due to delay in preparedness of the Falcon 9 vehicle for the launch.
The launch date was further postpone to June 10, 2025, due to unfavourable weather in the ascent corridor.
Additional observation of oxygen leakage in the engine bay was observed during the preparation for hot fire test conducted on June 08, 2025. Moreover, there was an observation of an anomaly in one
of the engine actuator which was replaced along with the controller.
Anticipating the quick resolution of LOX leak issue, the launch was rescheduled to June 11, 2025.
During the appraisal of technical issues by Axiom & SpaceX to ISRO delegation on June 10, 2025, ISRO recommended to carry out in-situ repairs or replacement and conduct a low-temperature leak test to validate system performance and integrity, before proceeding with launch clearance.
On June 11, 2025, NASA informed that they are working with Roscosmos to evaluate a new pressure signature indicating a leak in the aft most segment of the ISS Zvezda Russian service module, after the recent repair attempt. In order to assess the situation and determine the need for further troubleshooting, the launch of Axiom-4 mission is being postponed.
NASA and Axiom after satisfactorily completing the activities and technical reviews said the revised launch will now take place on June 19.
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