Launch of Axiom-4 carrying India’s Shubhanshu Shukla delayed after technical snag hits Space X rocket

The launch of the Axiom-4 space mission carrying India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station was postponed again Wednesday, this time to fix a technical problem with the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX that is being used to set the mission in motion.

The mission was supposed to take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Station in Florida at 5.30 pm India time. It was initially set to launch on Tuesday evening, India time, but had to be postponed for a day due to bad weather. A new launch date has not yet been announced.

“Standing down from tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the space station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections. Once complete – and pending range availability – we will share a new launch date,” SpaceX said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

The leak of liquid oxygen (LOx), a cryogenic fuel used in the rocket, had been discovered during the tests conducted on Monday but SpaceX had said it would complete the repair work by Tuesday to enable a launch on Wednesday. But clearly, the problem had not entirely been fixed.

Detailing about the delay, ISRO chairman V Narayanan said in a statement, “As part of launch vehicle preparation to validate the performance of booster stage of Falcon 9 launch vehicle, seven second of hot test was carried out on the launch pad. It is understood that LOx leakage was detected in the propulsion bay during the test. Based on the discussion on this topic by ISRO team with the experts of Axiom and SpaceX it has been decided to correct the leak and carry out necessary validation test before clearing for the launch. Hence the launch of Axiom-4 slated for 11th June 2025 for sending first Indian Gaganyatri to ISS is postponed.”

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket. Its first stage (booster) returns to the Earth after separating from the mission in space, and can be reused after a refurbishment. This is the second trip for the booster being used in the rocket that will launch Ax-4 mission. It had earlier flown on a Starlink mission in April this year.

William Gerstenmaier, vice-president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, had spoken about this leak, and some other problems with the rocket, during a pre-launch press conference on Monday evening (Tuesday morning India time).

“We discovered a few things during the static fire that we had to go take a look at. We found a LOx leak that we had previously seen on this booster during its entry on its last mission and discovered that we had not fully repaired the booster during the refurbishment or we didn’t actually find a leak and didn’t get it corrected. We have now gone out to the launchpad. We are continuing to trouble shoot that. We should get that completed today (Tuesday) and we will have that back in configuration,” Gerstenmaier had said.

He had added that the team was also working to make the rocket leak-proof. “We are installing a purge that will essentially mitigate the leak if it still continues if we see it on the launch day. So, we will be fully ready to go fly.”

He had stated: “We also discovered an engine 5 thrust vector control problem and we are going to change out the components associated with that. In fact, they are already changed out now and we will be complete with all work this evening and we will be ready to support a launch as early as tomorrow (Wednesday).”

The mission has another launch window on Thursday, June 12, but it was not yet clear whether the rocket would be ready to take off.

“This shows the difficulty of getting ready. You can always be prepared, but during the testing, during the dry runs, during the activities with the crew to make sure we are really ready is tremendously important because we always learn something,” Gerstenmaier said.

At the same press conference, Dana Weigel, Manager of the International Space Station Program at NASA, had said that there were many more windows of opportunity for the Axiom-4 mission to fly during June, and then also in July.

“In terms of launch opportunities, we have all the way through June 30 and then after a brief cut-out, we pick up again in the middle of July, in fact, in the second week of July. So, there are plenty of opportunities to fly the vehicle,” Weigel had said.