The leak on the ISS has been occurring since 2019, but now there is new data that we do not fully understand at the moment, Frank De Winne of the European Comic Agency said on Thursday at a media briefing in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Allen Flynt of Axiom Space added that the Ax-4 crew remains in quarantine.
NASA and Axiom Space announced on Thursday that the launch of the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed again, this time due to a leak in the Russian Zvezda service module on the ISS.
According to information provided by NASA, Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station recently inspected the Zvezda module, sealed some of its areas and measured the rate of leakage. The segment is currently maintaining pressure.
“The leak on the ISS has been occurring since 2019, but now there is new data that we do not fully understand at the moment and we want to investigate it before sending another crew,” Frank De Winne, group manager for LEO (Low Earth Orbit) services at the European Space Agency (ESA) and a former astronaut, said during a briefing.
Allen Flynt, Axiom Space’s mission services chief, echoed an earlier NASA and Axiom Space statement that NASA is working with Roscosmos “to understand new pressure changes following recent repairs” as part of an ongoing investigation.
He reported that the Ax-4 crew, including the Pole Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, remains in quarantine. “How long they will be there depends on the launch date. And a new date for the fourth private astronaut mission will be provided as soon as it is available,” he said.
De Winne added that during the extended quarantine, the crew is still reviewing procedures and preparing for the mission. “Of course, they are fully trained, but repetition makes perfect. Well, they are a bit disappointed, as a crew member I felt the same way,” the former astronaut admitted.
The journalists asked, among other things, whether it is common for space mission launches to be postponed. “I flew on six missions and every one of them was delayed. So it is completely normal,” said Michael López-Alegría, Axiom Space’s chief astronaut, who was the commander of the Ax-1 and Ax-3 missions.
He added that after the launch was postponed, he spoke with Ax-4 commander Peggy Whitson: “The crew members are in good spirits. They understand what's going on. They're following the situation as closely as we are.”
Asked if he could estimate how long it might take from the announcement of the new date to the launch of Ax-4, Frank De Winne said: “From experience, I would say two to three days. Every time you do a launch, you have to do a launch readiness review a few days before it. But that depends on SpaceX, of course.”
He emphasized that the crew is prepared for unexpected situations, including delays in launch. “The crew knows that in space flight the only thing that is absolutely certain is that nothing will go according to plan,” he concluded.
The launch of the Ax-4 mission, in which Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will fly to the International Space Station, has already been postponed four times. The Falcon 9 rocket flight, which is to carry the Dragon capsule with the mission crew into orbit, was originally planned for May 29 and June 8, 10 and 12. The reasons for the delay were previously unfavorable weather, excessively high winds in the upper atmosphere in the rocket's flight corridor, problems with the Dragon capsule and a fuel leak – liquid oxygen (LOx) – from the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket detected several dozen hours before the launch on June 10.
The Ax-4 mission crew consists of: Peggy Whitson (USA) – commander, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland/ESA) – specialist, Shubhanshu Shukla (India) – pilot and Tibor Kapu (Hungary) – specialist.
Dr. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will be the second Pole in space after Mirosław Hermaszewski.
This is the fourth commercial manned expedition carried out by the American company Axiom Space. The participation of a Pole in it is the result of an agreement signed between the Ministry of Development and Technology and the European Space Agency, concerning the preparation and implementation of the Polish technological and scientific mission IGNIS to the ISS. The Polish Space Agency (POLSA) is also involved in the preparations, and 13 Polish experiments will be taken to the ISS.
From Cape Canaveral Anna Bugajska (PAP)
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