Miami/Madrid, June 25 (EFE).- Axiom-4 space mission took off Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in central Florida, with astronauts from India, Hungary and Poland going to space after more than four decades.
The Ax-4 mission took off at 02:31 am local time (06:31 GMT) from Cape Canaveral for the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts will stay 14 days and conduct more than 60 scientific studies backed by 31 countries, including the United States, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria and United Arab Emirates.
The studies include research on the impact of microgravity on diseases such as diabetes, cancer and muscle degeneration, as well as experiments with microalgae, biometric sensors, seed cultures, radiation, 3D printing and human cognition in space.
This is also the first trip of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which moves astronauts to the ISS, following a clash between the company’s founder Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump.
The probe took off after six postponements. The mission was originally scheduled for May 29, but was postponed several times due to technical, meteorological and even unforeseen problems on the Russian side of the International Space Station.
The mission is led by the American Peggy Whitson, who worked at NASA and has spent a total of 675 days in space, more than any woman in the world and anyone else in the United States.
Other members of the crew are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Winiewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, undertaking the first spaceflight sponsored by their respective governments in more than 40 years.
The mission also symbolizes the growth of international collaboration in space research, with the active participation of agencies such as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the European Space Agency (ESA) and Hungary’s Hunor space program, which will conduct 25 of the planned experiments.
In addition, it represents a step toward the development of Axiom Station, the first commercial space station, which could become a permanent platform for science, industry and space exploration as NASA faces a possible 24 percent cut to its budget next year. EFE
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