June 18 (UPI) — Officials for NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX will attempt to launch the Axiom-4 mission as soon as Sunday after a Falcon 9 rocket leak scrubbed the June 11 mission launch.
The Axiom-4 mission on June 22 would be the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, according to NASA.
NASA officials have been evaluating ISS operations following a recent repair service to the aft-most segment of the ISS’s Zvezda service module.
A liquid oxygen leak caused SpaceX to scrub the Axiom-4 mission’s June 11 launch after discovering it a day earlier.
A post static fire booster inspection revealed the leak, which caused the mission’s second launch delay.
A June 10 launch also was scrubbed due to high winds.
The Axiom-4 mission is slated to last 14 days, while the crew conducts 60 science experiments on human research, Earth observation and life, biological and material sciences, according to SpaceX.
Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is Axiom Space’s director of human spaceflight and will command the commercial mission.
Indian Space Research Organization astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is the mission’s designated pilot.
Other mission specialists are European Space Agency astronaut Slawosz Usnanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew will man a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that a Falcon 9 rocket will send into space after launching from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida.
A prior Axiom-3 mission launched on Jan. 16, 2024, from Kennedy Space Center and was the first commercial spaceflight carrying citizens of European nations.
Houston-based Axiom Space is building what would be the first commercial space station, with a planned deployment sometime before 2030.