THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA sets new potential launch date for Ax-4 mission to ISS.
In a June 14 statement, NASA said it is working with Axiom Space and SpaceX on “reviewing launch opportunities” for the Ax-4 mission, with the earliest such opportunity on June 19.
The mission was set to launch June 11 but was postponed the evening before to correct a liquid oxygen leak in one of the engines in the Falcon 9’s first stage. That repair appeared to be ready to support a launch as soon as June 13, but NASA announced June 12 it put the launch on hold to allow the agency and Roscosmos to assess a “new pressure signature” in a Russian ISS module after recent work there.
The assessment involved a vestibule or “transfer tunnel” known as PrK at one end of the Zvevzda module, connecting a docking port to the rest of the module. That vestibule has had a small leak for several years, despite efforts by Roscosmos to seal it, and the vestibule is usually sealed off from the rest of the station.
NASA said that after the recent work, pressure in PrK remained stable rather than dropping slightly as previously detected.
Previously: ‘Possibility of a catastrophic failure’: Inside the space station leak problem that has NASA worried.