Shubhanshu Shukla's Axiom-4 spaceflight to launch on June19

If all goes well, the American Axiom-4 astronaut mission will liftoff of June 19th, Thursday, which is 20 days after the original launch date of 29th May. Over the last two weeks, the mission has faced multiple delays owing to - replacement of parts on the Crew Dragon Spacecraft, technical issues with a Falcon 9 rocket engine, unfavourable weather, a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 rocket, and an anomaly in the Russian Zvezda module on the International Space Station. Indian Air Force test pilot and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will be the second-in-command of this mission.

Announcing the new targeted launch date, the Indian Space agency ISRO said that the liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 rocket has been successfully resolved. ISRO says this based on the outcome of a meeting between ISRO, Axiom Space, and SpaceX. "Axiom Space informed that they are working closely with NASA to assess the pressure anomaly in the Russian Zvezda Service Module onboard the International Space Station," read the statement from ISRO.

Opportunities for launch till June 30th or from mid-July

"In terms of launch opportunities, we have opportunities all the way to June 30th," said Dana Weigel, Manager, International Space Station Programme, NASA. Typically, every rocket launch mission has a launch window/launch opportunity- an ideal period of a few days or weeks within which the launch can take place. On each of these specific days within the launch window, there are a few minutes when the rocket can blastoff to space. All of these launch times are precisely planned down to the second, based on various technical parameters. Which is why many rocket launch missions happen at odd hours, and no two missions(even of the same type) follow the same launch time or schedule.

In case SpaceX and Axiom Space are unable to launch in the month of June, there are opportunities in July as well, Weigel had said. "Russians have a Progress cargo vehicle undocking from the International Space Station and new one docking, so we have a brief cut out for that.

And then, a brief cut out for high solar beta. And then we have launch opportunities in the second week of July/middle of July. Plenty of opportunities to fly the vehicle," she had elaborated.

Predominantly, only America and Russia launch crafts to the International Space Station.

Therefore, the two have to plan their traffic accordingly and coordinate the arrivals and departures with regards the Space Station. This is why Dana mentioned of a break in the month of July.

Further, while launching astronaut-carrying spacecrafts to the Space Station, a technical parameter called Solar Beta needs to be factored in- it determines how much during each orbit the spacecraft is exposed to sunlight or Earth's shadow. This affects the heating or cooling of the spacecraft, ability of solar panels to generate power. For example, while circling the earth, when a spacecraft is exposed to a lot of sunlight, it could suffer overheating issues. Therefore the next window for the Axiom-4 launch is in Mid-July.

About Axiom-4 Human spaceflight mission

Axiom-4 will carry a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station, where they would stay for two weeks and perform 60 experiments. The astronauts would be flying on the SpaceX Falcon9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. Peggy Whitson, veteran NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the Axiom-4 mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot or second-in-command. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

This mission will facilitate the return to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, given that each nation’s first and only government-sponsored spaceflight had taken place more than 40 years ago. The Ax-4 crew members will represent their nations in Low Earth Orbit and perform scientific experiments and demonstrations that are of high national importance.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will be the first Indian to fly to the International Space Station, and the second Indian to fly to space after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew on a Soviet Mission in 1984. The Indian Government has paid almost $64mn(Rs.550cr) for Shukla's training and spaceflight as part of Axiom-4. As he circles the earth, Shukla will also be performing experiments in STEM(Science, Tech, Engineering, Math), and these will be made available as recorded educational videos, as part of the Axiom-4 mission outreach activity.