by Peggy WhitsonAmerica’s most experienced astronaut, leads an international crew of first kites from India, Poland and Hungary on one Private-Fastinanced flight To the International Space Station-De Fourth Non-Governmental Mission mounted by Axiom Space, based in Houston.
Trapped in a new, not yet mentioned SpaceX-Manning Dragon Capsule that makes his first flight, the crew is expected to shed away from Pad 39A at 2:31 am Edt on Wednesday in the Kennedy Space Center in the Kennedy Space Center, approximately the moment that the earth’s rocket for the rocket from the Roomtestation of the SpaceTestation of the SpaceTestation airtestation.
The crew members of Whitson are test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from India, European space agency astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu. All three make their first space flight.
The AX-4 crew (from left to right): Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu, Indian pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, mission commander Peggy Whitson and European space agency Astronaut Sławosz Uznańskiśniewski from Poland. / Credit: SpaceX
The spread of the Dragon crew, serial number C213, is the fifth and final addition to SpaceX’s fleet of astronaut ferry ships built for NASA flights to the space station and for privately financed commercial missions to low-earth Orbit.
The Falcon 9 first phase Booster, B1094, will make its second flight. After the Dragon crew is pushed out of the lower atmosphere, the first phase will try a return to launch location at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. To date, SpaceX 466 has taken successful landings from the first phase, 63 of them in Florida.
Photos of the Axiom AX-R Mission Astronauts are seen as SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket and Dragon SpaceCraft on the launch pillow in Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center on 24 June 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. / Credit: Giorgio Viera/ AFP via Getty Images
The launch was originally planned for 11 June, but the flight was stopped by work to resolve an oxygen leak in the sanitary facilities of the Falcon 9’s first phase. Subsequently, it was delayed by renewed concern about small, but personnel air leaks in a Russian compartment on board the space station that connects the Aft-Dockingpoort of the Lab with the ZVEZDA service module.
The leak in the PRK vestibule was first noticed in 2019 and has since been closely monitored. The compartment is closed unless a Russian spacecraft uses Docking Poort.
NASA did not explain what led to the last care, or what was done to resolve this. But sources said that the Russians matched to reduce the air pressure in the PRK compartment more than usual, so that the higher pressure on sea level in Zvezda and the rest of the station results in a tighter than usual seal between the rear hatch of the service module and the leaking PRK.
This minimizes, if not eliminates, every chance that the air supply can be influenced in the other modules of the station if the leak suddenly deteriorated.
Plans for the AX-4 mission
Based on an elevator on time, Whitson, Shukla, Uznański and Kapu will dock at the space shortage of the forward harmonization module of the station at 7 am on Thursday at 7 am.
They will be welcomed on board by NASA Crew 10 Commander Anne McClain, pilot Nicole Ayers, Russian Kosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese Vlieger Takuya Oneishi, together with Soyuz MS-27 crew members Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky.
Whitson, who has a doctorate in biochemistry, retired at NASA in 2018 and now works for Axiom. She is in ninth place in the world for Time in Space, no. 1 in the world among female astronauts and number 1 generally among American astronauts.
AX-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson, floating in the Multi-Window Coepola compartment on board the international space station during an earlier visit. Now retiring from NASA, Whitson is the most experienced astronaut in America with three ISS missions and an earlier axiom commercial flight on her credit. / Credit: NASA
While he went to the AX-4 flight, Whitson had registered in space for 675 days about three NASA flights and one mission after retirement for Axiom Space.
As if that is not enough, she is also the world’s most experienced female space walker – seventh in the world in general – with 10 excursions of a total of 60 hours and 21 minutes. She was the first female and non-military leader of the Astronautkantoor of NASA and served as the first female commander of the international space station.
“I think I am somewhat addicted to space,” she said in an interview with CBS News. “I really like to be there, and it’s just exciting life in an environment that is so different from what we have here on earth. And after me adapted to that environment, it is nice for me to share my experience with the Rookie flyers who go with me.
“I can share the first time in their experience of the first time,” she added.
Uznański-Wiśniewski summarized the feelings of his AX-4 crew members and say: “We regard ourselves as extreme happiness to fly with Peggy, the best commander we could have wished.”
The AX-4 mission follows in the footsteps of Axiom’s first three “private astronaut missions” or pams, a formal indication by NASA for commercial research flights to the international space station.
During the two-week mission, Whitson and its crew members will perform a full series of science research and technological demonstrations, together with interactive educational events in the home countries of the crew. They are trained for space station operations and will have full use of the American segment of the Orbital Lab.
“We have many objectives for our mission,” said Whitson. “The first is of course the realization of the return of these three countries to space, but this will be their first time to go to the international space station.
“Of course they will have a number of different scientific, technological and educational goals as part of their missions from each of the countries, from India, Poland and Hungary. I will also do some research for Axioma space.”
All in all, researchers from 31 countries will help evaluate data from the AX-4 experiments and technological demonstrations. Whitson said that the mission “opens access to countries that normally do not have access to space. So this is very exciting.”
West Virginia’s “Coal Country” still recovers from floods of February
How climate change risks for pregnant women increases
The impact of self -declarations on families
