Axiom-4 Mission launch gets postponed to 11 June due to bad weather

Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which includes Indian Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla onboard, and was supposed to lift off on June 10, has now been pushed to June 11 due to adverse weather conditions, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Monday.

The mission crew include India's Indian Air Force pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, along with three other crew members.

The Axiom-4 mission was supposed to be launched from LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on 10 June at 8.22 am ET.

ISRO Chairman confirms delay

Dr. V Narayanan, Chairman of ISRO, Secretary of the Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission, confirmed the postponement via a post through ISRO's X account.

“Due to weather conditions, the launch of Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to the International Space Station is postponed from 10th June 2025 to 11th June 2025," reads the post.

Jitendra Singh posts about Axiom's development

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh also posted about the postponement of the Axiom-4 mission.

“Due to adverse weather, the launch of the Axiom-4 mission carrying Indian Gaganyatri to the International Space Station is rescheduled from June 10 to possibly June 11, 2025. Further updates, if any, will be shared accordingly,” Dr Jitendra Singh posted on X.

Axiom-4 mission; Shubhanshu Shukla

ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's Axiom mission comes four decades after Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma joined a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1984.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is set to become the second Indian in space and the first to visit the International Space Station. He will pilot the Axiom Mission-4, scheduled for launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on June 11, alongside crewmates from the US, Hungary, and Poland.

Axiom 4 Mission experiments

The Axiom-4 mission aims to carry out 60 experiments with a four-member crew. These include seven experiments that have been planned by ISRO and five others in which Shukla will participate as part of NASA’s human research programme.

Additionally, Shukla will be involved in five collaborative studies organised by NASA for the same program.