WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA has delayed the launch of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station indefinitely.
'NASA has made the decision to stand down from a launch on Sunday, June 22, and will target a new launch date in the coming days,' the U.S. space agency said in a press release Thursday.
'The space agency needs additional time to continue evaluating International Space Station operations after recent repair work in the aft (back) most segment of the orbital laboratory's Zvezda service module. Because of the space station's interconnected and interdependent systems, NASA wants to ensure the station is ready for additional crew members, and the agency is taking the time necessary to review data,' it added.
After several previous postponements due to technical glitches, the mission was set to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday.
The four-member crew, led by veteran former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, was scheduled to travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the company's Falcon 9 rocket.
Whitson, who is the director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew remains in quarantine in Florida, and the astronauts stand ready to launch when the station is ready to receive them, according to NASA.
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