SPACE NEWS by Jeff Foust June 12, 2025
NASA and Axiom Space are indefinitely delaying a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station after detecting a “new pressure signature” in a part of the station that has had a long-running air leak.
NASA said June 12 that the agency, along with Axiom Space, has agreed to delay the Ax-4 private astronaut mission to the ISS. They did not announce a new launch date for the mission.
The delay, NASA said, would give NASA and Roscosmos more time to study a new development with an air leak in a compartment of the Zvezda module. That leak was first detected in 2019 and Roscosmos has been working for years to try to fix.
“As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module,” NASA stated. The agency did not elaborate on the nature of that pressure signal in the statement, deferring questions to Roscosmos. That agency has not commented on the leaks, although June 12 was a national holiday in Russia.
More:
https://spacenews.com/nasa-indefinitely-delays-private-astronaut-mission-citing-air-leak-in-russian-module/
