SpaceX launches historic Axiom-4 astronaut mission to ISS

SpaceX's new Dragon spacecraft launched on its debut mission on June 25, sending the four-person Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for Houston-based Axiom Space, UNN reports, citing Space.com.

Details

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Ax-4 launched this morning at 2:31 a.m. EDT (09:31 Kyiv time) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

By tradition, the crew of the first launch of a spacecraft gets the right to name it. This honor fell to Ax-4 for this new Dragon; the astronauts named it "Grace", which they revealed when they reached orbit.

Originally scheduled for June 11, the mission launch faced two full weeks of delays. High-altitude winds delayed the first Ax-4 attempt. A leak in the launch vehicle caused another delay, but the latest and longest launch delay was a leak aboard the ISS.

The commander of Ax-4 is former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is currently Axiom's director of manned spaceflight. She is joined on the mission by pilot Shubhanzu Shukla and mission specialists Slavosh Uznanski-Vishnevsky and Tibor Kapu.

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