The International Space Station is ready to receive the four astronauts part of the Axiom-4 mission on a 14-day science expedition. However, the astronauts aboard the ISS will have to wait an extra day for their new colleagues to join as the launch of Ax-4 mission is delayed.

The Ax-4 mission with astronauts from India, the US, Poland and Hungary has been postponed by 24 hours and will launch on June 11. According to the latest Nasa input the launch is scheduled to take place from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 5:30 pm IST.

Veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson is commanding Ax-4 and will be flying on her fifth mission to the orbiting lab. She is leading first-time space flyers Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from India and Mission Specialists Sawosz Uzananski-Wisniewksi from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

With the launch now delayed the current Expedition 74 crew aboard the ISS has had several days of Ax-4 reviews studying the mission’s profile and Dragon’s automated approach and rendezvous techniques.

"The orbital crewmates also readied space station systems, activated tablet computers, and installed sleep stations Ax-4 will use during its planned two-week stay aboard the station. NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will be on duty monitoring Dragon as the Ax-4 quartet approaches the station for doing," Nasa said in a statement.

The mission, a collaborative effort involving Axiom Space, NASA, SpaceX and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), marks India's return to human spaceflight more than four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s historic 1984 journey.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a decorated Indian Air Force pilot and Isro astronaut, will serve as the mission’s pilot, joining mission commander Peggy Whitson and specialists from Hungary and Poland.

Group Captain Shukla's family, including his wife and four-year-old son, are present in Florida awaiting the launch.

Source: India Today