FLORIDA: The launch of Axiom-4 mission carrying Shubhanshu Shukla, India's second astronaut to space, has been postponed again. The mission was postponed due to a technical glitch in its Falcon 9 rocket that is being used for the launch. A liquid oxygen leak in the rocket was noticed two days ago.

SpaceX and Axiom Space announced that the inspection of the rocket is continuing and that they need time to fix the technical glitch. The rocket was scheduled to launch at 5.30 pm Indian time on Wednesday. The revised date will be informed later.

Standing down from tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections. Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date pic.twitter.com/FwRc8k2Bc0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 11, 2025

Four passengers, including Shubhanshu, will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. The other passengers are Mission Commander Peggy Whitson (USA), Sławos Usnanski Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary). Shukla and his team will spend 14 days at the International Space Station and conduct various experiments.

The launch was postponed three times earlier due to adverse weather conditions. Once the mission is completed, Shukla will become the first Indian to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma and the first Indian to visit the ISS (International Space Station). India is bearing the cost of Rs 548 crore for Shukla's journey.