Liftoff on June 22; will 7th time be lucky for Axiom-4 spaceflight?

American firm Axiom Space has announced that its Axiom-4 astronaut mission is slated for liftoff at 1:12pm Indian time (3:42am EDT), Sunday (June 22). However, due to various dynamic technical factors, the exact launch time could be slightly adjusted at the final moment. In case the launch does not take place on Sunday, there is a backup launch opportunity on Monday, 23rd June.

The launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon capsule is to take place from NASA's Launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. The mission will carry four astronauts, including India's Shubhanshu Shukla, to the International Space Station for a two-weeks-long mission.

Originally targeted for May 29 launch, it was pushed to June 8, June 9, June 10, June 11, June 19, and now June 22. Being the 7th launch date for this mission, the question arises if it would literally be "7th time lucky" for Axiom-4 and its crew. So far, this mission has been delayed owing to- replacement of parts on the SpaceX 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.

The Axiom-4 crew went into pre-launch mandatory quarantine on May 26 and continue to remain in isolation. Pre-launch quarantine is followed to closely monitor the astronauts' health, to avoid exposure to any last-minute illness. Quarantine is also important to ensure that the astronauts flying to the space station don't carry any infection to the closed environment of the orbiting lab. By 22nd June(launch day), they would have spent four weeks in quarantine, which is twice as much the usual two-week quarantine.

Opportunities for launch till June 30 or from mid-July

"In terms of launch opportunities, we have opportunities all the way to June 30th," Dana Weigel, Manager, International Space Station Programme, NASA, had said earlier this month. 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 from mid-July, she added.

About Axiom-4 and its astronauts

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 Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. Peggy Whitson, America's seniormost 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. Apart from Peggy, all those aboard this mission are first-time astronauts. Therefore, the impact of these delays on the first-timers astronauts' families must also be factored in.

This Axiom-4 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.