SpaceX Falcon 9, Dragon and Axiom Ax-4 crew are ready for launch

In the past week, SpaceX has prepared the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the Axiom Ax-4 crew mission, and these are now standing vertical at the launch pad. Meanwhile, the astronauts have completed all the pre-liftoff rehearsals.

Update: The mission is now targeting Wednesday, June 11, due to high winds in the ascent corridor.

The rocket maker confirmed these pre-launch milestones via X and posted visuals of the crew in SpaceX space gear. The Falcon 9 has completed a static fire, and teams are reviewing the test data before clearing the rocket for the launch date. These two activities are important to ensure everything goes right on the liftoff day.

SpaceX and Axiom Space are targeting Tuesday, June 10, for the first launch attempt, and the liftoff window will open at 8:22 a.m. EDT. However, several factors, including the weather conditions, could force the partners to delay or postpone the schedule.

The mission will be conducted from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its nine Merlin engines will ignite to take off from the launch pad. After separating the booster via hot-staging, the second stage will send the crewed spacecraft en route to the International Space Station.

According to information, the Dragon spacecraft is expected to dock at approximately 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 11. NASA’s onboard team will be responsible for the integrated operations, which will start as Dragon approaches the space station.

The crew could stay up to two weeks at the orbiting laboratory and aims to perform numerous science, education, and commercial activities.

Falcon 9 and Dragon Spacecraft (Source – SpaceX)

Crew details

SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft will host four Axiom Ax-4 astronauts in their journey to space. These include former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, who’ll command the mission. He will be joined by pilot and ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla. The other two are mission specialists, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

The live stream of the Axiom Ax-4 crew mission will be available on X on the launch day.