Space leaks and Earth leaks are being taken care of, clearing the path to the next human space flight from the space coast.
Topped with a new crew dragon spacecraft, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are about to bring in four private astronauts on an Axiom Space AX-4 mission on a trip to the International Space Station on Thursday morning, between 4:45-5:05 AM launch windows from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39-A.
The crew had already faced a series of delays last week. The planned Monday launch was cancelled due to weather and delayed Tuesday’s attempts, allowing SpaceX to fix the liquid oxygen leak on the first phase booster of the rocket. SpaceX retested the booster on Thursday without detecting leaks, but NASA announced that it would need to delay launches due to recent repairs on the Russian side of the space station, which need to be monitored.
“Following the best repairs, the pressure in the transfer tunnel is stable,” reads NASA’s latest release on Saturday. “Previously, the pressure in this area would have been reduced, which could indicate that small leaks are sealed.”
NASA said Roscosmos still monitors pressure levels, but allowed SpaceX and Axiom Space to target new early launch opportunities.
The mission sends former NASA astronauts and now Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson on his fifth space trip. She has led three clients from three countries that have not been flying astronauts for over 40 years.
The pilot role includes India’s Shuvansch Shukla, while Poland’s Swos Uznaski, European Space Agency project astronaut and Hungary’s Tibor Kap are mission specialists.
The quartet will dock on the space station a day after its release, staying on about two weeks of axiom space and a second visit led by Whitson. She previously flew three missions at NASA, but already has a total of 675 days spent in space. This is both an American record and a woman record.
The mission was originally targeted for a 2024 launch, but faces a series of delays, including abandoning its planned ride, Dragon Endurance, on the NASA Crew 10 mission that flew in March.
The trade-off is that the crew will be SpaceX’s fifth and SpaceX’s final crew Dragon Capsule, giving it the traditional honor of naming it once it reaches orbit. In addition to endurance, other dragon capsules were named effort, resilience, and freedom.
This marks the third human spaceflight from this year’s Space Coast, following the remaining Crew 10 missions at the space station this year to welcome the AX-4, as well as the private polar orbital FRAM2 mission that was also in March.
Since the first human spaceflight in 2020, SpaceX has flew 17 existing crew dragon spacecraft that carry 64 humans into space.
Original issue: June 14th, 2025, 12:02 PM EDT
