SpaceX will launch four astronauts into Earth orbit this week, including the first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary on a mission to the International Space Station. The private mission, called Axiom Mission 4, will travel in a Dragon capsule and stay for 14 days on the orbiting laboratory.
The Axiom Mission 4 crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the space station. From ... More
Axiom Mission 4 is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 8:22 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 10, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The targeted docking time is approximately 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11.
Axiom Space’s YouTube channel and NASA TV on YouTube is where to go to see the launch of the Dragon capsule on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Any changes to the launch time will be made by Axiom Space on Twitter.
The four crew members include the first government-sponsored spaceflights to the ISS from India (Shubhanshu Shukla), Poland (Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski) and Hungary (Tibor Kapu).
Shukla, the pilot, is from the Indian Space Research Organization, while Uznański-Wiśniewski and Kapu are European Space Agency astronauts. While on the ISS, the crew will undertake about 60 microgravity research experiments.
Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and currently director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission. She is America's most experienced astronaut, totaling 675 days in space, and became the first female commander of the ISS.
Ax-4 is the fourth private astronaut mission organized by Houston-based, privately funded space infrastructure developer Axiom Space. Its first mission launched in April 2022, its second in May 2023 and its third in January 2024. Whitson commanded Axiom Mission 2, taking a crew of four private astronauts into orbit for eight days, including two from Saudi Arabia.
Shukla’s spaceflight is something of a stop-gap for the Indian Space Research Organisation, which has recently delayed plans for its first human spaceflight. The project, called Gaganyaan (meaning “celestial vehicle” in Sanskrit), will see two uncrewed test flights followed by the launch of three crew on a three-day orbital mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, but not before 2027. ISRO plans to have an orbiting space station by 2035 and to have its astronauts land on the moon by 2040. India became one of just four nations to land on the moon with Chandrayaan-3 in August 2023.