How Shubhanshu Shukla's Space Flight Was 60 Seconds Away From Getting Scrapped
With less than 60 seconds remaining before a possible abort, a critical technical issue was resolved this morning, paving the way for the launch of Axiom Mission 4 from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The mission is carrying four astronauts, including India's Shubhanshu Shukla, to the International Space Station (ISS), marking a major milestone for commercial spaceflight and India's human spaceflight programme.
The issue, identified as a delay in uploading updated wind data to the Falcon 9 rocket's flight computer, was flagged by SpaceX engineers during the final countdown sequence. The anomaly occurred inside the final window. Following rapid data uplink corrections, the problem was resolved without triggering an abort.
In layman's terms, the spacecraft was not accepting the upload of wind condition data. This data is essential in case of an emergency abort after launch, as it would allow the spacecraft to accurately target offshore emergency splashdown locations. Engineers had to troubleshoot and successfully upload that data before they could arm the Launch Escape System.
The system had to be enabled no later than 37 minutes before liftoff.
SpaceX informed the crew that the data had been uploaded successfully with just one minute to spare.
The Axiom-4 mission will be launched at 12:01 pm IST (2:31 am EDT), from Launch Complex 39A. The mission is the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS organised by Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA and executed by SpaceX.
Shubhanshu Shukla, a former Indian Air Force Group Captain and payload specialist trained under NASA and ISRO, is joined by mission commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, a European Space Agency-supported engineer, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The four-person crew boarded the Dragon capsule "Endurance" early today, having completed final health and mission readiness checks after exiting a 30-day quarantine. The spacecraft, mounted atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, made its maiden flight after multiple delays.
"Dragon's hatch is closed, all communication and suit checks are complete, the seats are rotated, and the Ax-4 crew is ready for launch," SpaceX posted on X (formerly Twitter).
During pre-launch hatch checks, Commander Whitson reported discovering a foreign fibre near the seal area, which was promptly removed by the ground team. A subsequent leak integrity check was carried out and the side hatch was re-secured.
The launch was previously postponed multiple times. Initially scheduled for May 29, it was first delayed to June 8 due to the incomplete readiness of the Dragon capsule. On June 10 and 11, further delays were forced by high-altitude wind concerns in the rocket's ascent corridor and a liquid oxygen (LOX) leak discovered in the Falcon 9 booster. The ageing Zvezda service module of the ISS operated by Roscosmos also required emergency maintenance, further narrowing the available docking windows.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS at approximately 4:30 pm IST tomorrow, pending nominal orbital manoeuvres and approach checks.
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