Image: @SpaceX on X
Early Wednesday morning, SpaceX successfully launched Axiom Space‘s Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), marking a historic milestone in commercial spaceflight and international collaboration.
Liftoff occurred at 2:31 a.m. ET (11:31 p.m. PT on June 24) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Supported by a brand-new Dragon spacecraft — a fifth addition to SpaceX’s crew-rated Dragon fleet — the mission represents a series of firsts for both the company and the countries involved.
Just 9 minutes and 40 seconds after launch, Dragon separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage and is now en route to dock with the ISS around 7:00 a.m. ET (4:00 a.m. PT) on Thursday, June 26.
This is Axiom’s fourth human spaceflight mission and features an international crew led by veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson, who continues to extend her record for the most cumulative time spent in space by an American. The mission also includes three astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary embarking on landmark spaceflights for their respective countries.
Shubhanshu Shukla becomes only the second Indian national astronaut to fly to space, following in the footsteps of Rakesh Sharma in 1984. Poland’s Sławosz Uznański, a European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut, is now the second Polish astronaut since Mirosław Hermaszewski in 1978. Meanwhile, Hungary’s Tibor Kapu marks his country’s return to human spaceflight for the first time since 1980.
The Ax-4 mission is the first spaceflight to the ISS for all three nations and only the second commercial mission composed entirely of government- and ESA-sponsored astronauts. With 66 crewmembers from 17 countries now having flown aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsules since 2020, today’s launch cements SpaceX’s growing role in shaping the future of international space access.
Check out footage of the Ax-4 mission liftoff below, courtesy of SpaceX:
SpaceX recently suffered a major setback with its Starship program as its latest prototype caught fire during a static fire test ahead of a planned 10th orbital flight attempt. The company had reportedly been eyeing a late June launch window for its next Starship test flight.
