Shubhanshu Shukla's Ax-04 mission: Liquid oxygen leak resolved; June 19 new launch date

NEW DELHI: The

liquid oxygen leak

detected in the

Falcon 9 launch vehicle

, which postponed the launch of

Ax-04 mission

, has been fixed, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) announced on Saturday. The new launch date being targetted is June 19.At a subsequent coordination meeting involving ISRO,

Axiom Space

, and SpaceX, confirmation was received that the liquid oxygen leak detected in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle had been effectively addressed.In a separate development, Axiom Space reported their ongoing collaboration with Nasa to evaluate the pressure irregularity discovered in the Zvezda Service Module aboard the International Space Station.In a press release, 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."

The astronauts were originally scheduled for lift-off on May 29, which was put off to June 8, June 10 and June 11, when SpaceX, the providers of the launch rocket and the space capsule, detected a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon-9 rocket.Former Nasa astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as the pilot.The two mission specialists are European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.The 14-day mission will "realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary.