SpaceX launched Axiom Ax-4 mission with international crew to ISS

SpaceX successfully launched the Ax-4 astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) early Wednesday morning. The liftoff took place at 2:31am EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission was originally set to launch on June 10 but had to be postponed because of high winds and several technical issues posing several leaks on both the rocket and the ISS. It was approved for launch after correcting the issues. Ax-4 is an entirely new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that is making its first trip into space.

Ax-4 is led by an American veteran astronaut, Peggy Whitson who works as Axiom's director of human spaceflight. She has spent the most time ever in space for a US astronaut at 675 days. 

Whitson is joined by Shubhanshu Shukla from India, Sławosz Uznański from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary; all three astronauts are traveling to space for the first time and become the first astronauts from their countries to dock with the ISS.

After launch, the spacecraft will take just over a day to reach the ISS, with docking expected around 7:00am EDT on June 26. The team will live aboard the space station for about two weeks, where they will conduct over 60 science experiments, setting a new record for any Axiom Space mission.

The return date hasn’t been fixed yet, as it depends on safe splashdown conditions in the Pacific Ocean.