New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) potentially saved the US-led Axiom-4 Mission, which recently carried Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), from a possible fatal failure, the Indian space agency head V. Narayanan said Thursday.
In a media interaction with Group captains Shukla and Prasanth B Nair—the backup crew for Axiom-4—and Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Narayanan said that on 8 June, when engineers from SpaceX and Axiom Space were testing the rocket before launch, an oxygen leak was observed.
“We (ISRO team) asked what the source of the leak was, and they told us that they were not aware. They were initially under the impression that it was a minor leak, and the mission could go ahead. But our analysis showed that something was off,” Narayanan said.
The ISRO chief added that it was upon the insistence of the Indian team that a thorough examination of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was conducted. It was observed that there was a crack in the oxidiser line, which carries liquid oxygen to power the rocket. Such a leak can prove to be a serious safety concern, especially in a human spaceflight.
The leak was fixed before the mission finally took off.
The Axiom-4 Mission, which carried Shukla, US’s Peggy Whitson, European mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wiśniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, reached the ISS on 26 June.
The mission, however, faced nearly a month’s delay before it finally took off.
After being initially scheduled for 29 May, the mission was first postponed to 8 June , then to 10 June, and again to 11 June. Launch attempts were also made on 19 June and finally on 22 June.
The 8 June launch was deferred due to an electrical issue in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which was christened ‘Grace’ for the Axiom-4 Mission. Subsequently, the delay was caused by another leak, this time in the ISS’ Zvezda module, which is the Russian service module that houses critical life-support and docking systems.
Narayanan said in the press briefing that ISRO had put its foot down, insisting that they would go as far as to withdraw from the mission.
(Edited by Tony Rai)