Astronaut mission postponed in the middle of the concerns of leaks to the international space station | International space station

A spatial flight chartered for India, Poland and the first astronauts from Hungary for decades has been delayed indefinitely due to flight problems at the International Space Station.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday that it had postponed the Axiom 4 mission to the ISS to monitor the cabin pressure on the Russian side of the orbit laboratory before accepting visitors. The officials stressed that the seven astronauts currently at the space station were safe and that other operations there would not be affected.

The ROSCOSMOS space agency said on Friday that a leak in the Russian segment had been repaired, reported the Interfax news agency. A new launch date has not been set.

SpaceX was supposed to launch four private astronauts this week on a mission of the 14 -day space station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but bad weather and the problems of SpaceX rocket delayed the flight. Then, the problem of the station’s leaks arose.

The three Russians aboard the space station recently inspected the interior walls of the aging Zvezda service module, which was launched in 2000, as well as a connection tunnel. They sealed certain areas and measured the current leak rate.

“After this effort, the segment now supports the pressure,” said NASA in an online update.

The delay in the private mission gives additional time to NASA and the Russian space agency “to assess the situation” and determine if more repairs are necessary.

The chartered flight was organized by the Axiom area of ​​Houston Company and was to be the fourth trip from Axiom to the space station with paid customers since 2022.

“This is the right thing to do,” said Kam Ghaffarian, Executive President of Axiom Space in a written declaration. “We will continue to work with all our partners to finalize a new launch date.”

The four astronauts – led by the retired astronaut of NASA Peggy Whitson, now an employee of the Axiom space – will remain in quarantine in Florida. Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Indian pilot, is also planned aboard the mission, and one of the four astronauts in India training, the first astrona, plans the first Gaganyaan mission for 2027. Shukla, 39.

Tibor Kapu should join the Axiom mission of Hungary; Sławosz Uznański-WiśNewski in Poland. The first could be the third person born in Hungary for visiting space. The latter should become the second person in Poland to do so. The previous Polish astronaut, a general, participated in a Soviet mission in 1978.

The Russian space agency deals with cracks and air leaks in its station compartments for more than five years – “a risk of higher security”, according to the NASA General Inspector Office. Recent repairs have resulted in NASA calling “a new pressure signature”. Additional details were not immediately available.

NASA wants the space station to operate until 2030 before dropping it off in orbit. The objective is to replace it with a number of private stations; Axiom Space is one of the companies that seek to fill the void.

The United States sends its astronauts to the spacecraft SpaceX ISS on board, but Elon Musk, CEO of The Rocket Maker, posted on X early Friday morning that the huge orbital base should be decorated within two years.

“There are potentially serious concerns about the long-term security of the space station. Some parts of these are simply too old and obviously this risk increases over time,” wrote Musk. “Even if SpaceX wins billions of dollars from the transport of astronauts and cargoes at the ISS, I nevertheless wanted me to record I recommended that it is boring in the 2 years.”