California [US], June 10 (ANI): SpaceX Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, William Gerstenmaier, highlighted the company’s focus on safety and reliability in its Dragon capsule missions, saying the “design changed several propulsion components to make them reliable and more useful.”
“So this isn’t just the same Dragon capsule you’re flying. We’ve actually made some improvements and actually made it better to continue to keep flying safe,” Gerstenmaier said on Tuesday (local time) in a Axiom 4 post-launch readiness review press conference.
“So far this year, SpaceX teams have long spring drag missions, two of which were human spaceflight missions, with all of them launching within 38 days of one another. And while we were working on those, the teams were also looking ahead and preparing for action,” he added.
Notably, SpaceX is on track to achieve a record-breaking year, but it still has a significant number of launches left to reach its ambitious target of 170 orbital missions in 2025. With several launches already completed, the company has around 100 more missions to go to meet its goal.
“It gives us the opportunity to review data regularly, and it allows us to look for data, look for small things, fly things, improve things, and continue to fly safely..Thanks to NASA axiom and the partners on this mission. India, Poland and Hungary, thanks for their trust and close collaboration on this very important mission,” he added.
Further in the Zoom meeting, Jimmy Taeger, Launch Weather Officer with the 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force, said that the current weather conditions in Central Florida are influenced by a surface high-pressure system located to the southeast. This system is expected to move northward in the next few days, potentially changing the wind flow and increasing the chances of isolated showers.
“The probability violation was lowered for tomorrow’s initial attempt, and for the next attempt on Wednesday, the probability violation does increase a bit, 20 per cent, from the keep us positive reports. The backup opportunity increased just a little bit more to about 25 per cent,” he said.
Taeger noted that while the winds are expected to improve over the next couple of days, with Wednesday and Thursday looking better than the previous days, the possibility of showers moving into the area could still pose a challenge for the launch.
“Even though it does look like winds are going to be improving over the next couple of weeks. So as we get into Wednesday, winds will be better, and Thursday, even better than Wednesday. The one thing we are going to be keeping a close eye on, though, is possible showers,” he said.
The Axiom-4 mission launch has been postponed to June 11, 2025, due to unfavorable weather conditions. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the mission, carrying Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), will now lift off at 5:30 PM IST on June 11.
ISRO wrote on X, “Launch of Axiom-4 mission to International Space Station: Due to weather conditions, the launch of Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to International Space Station is postponed from 10th June 2025 to 11th June 2025. The targeted time of launch is 5:30 PM IST on 11th June 2025: Dr V Narayanan, Chairman ISRO/ Secretary DOS / Chairman Space Commission.”
The Ax-4 crew includes members from India, Poland, and Hungary, marking each nation’s first mission to the space station in history and the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years, according to Axiom Space. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will be India’s second national astronaut to go to space since 1984.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is part of Axiom Space’s fourth private astronaut mission (Ax-4), marking a historic moment for India’s space collaboration with NASA. (ANI)
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