New Delhi: The Axiom-4 space mission with Indian Air Force group captain Shubhanshu Shukla on board will set the stage for a new chapter in space exploration— the world’s first commercial space station. US-based private company Axiom Space wants to send the first module of the space station by 2027.
Before Axiom-4, three other missions—AX-1, 2 and 3—achieved different objectives, but all of these were also preparatory flights ahead of achieving the 2027 docking module deadline.
This module will dock with the current ISS and eventually replace it. The ISS is due to be decommissioned in 2030.
In December last year, Axiom Space announced that after the first module is attached to the ISS, the next fixture will also be sent by 2028, in efforts towards making the new station an independent orbital platform.
Axiom-4 is set for launch Wednesday.
Why decommission the ISS?
The current International Space Station (ISS), a collaborative effort by 14 countries, had its first piece launched in 1998. A Russian rocket carried the Russian Zarya Control Module, and about two weeks later space shuttle Endeavour took the US Unity node. The Unity node was attached to Zarya.
Between 1998 and 2000, more pieces were carried and joined together in space, before the station saw the first crew land on the International Space Station on 2 November 2000.
It took around 27 space shuttle flights, using the since-retired shuttle’s large cargo bay, and multiple international partner missions for the final station to be assembled. The ISS has remained occupied ever since.
“The technical lifetime of the station is limited by the primary structure, which includes the modules, radiators, and truss structures. The lifetime of the primary structure is affected by dynamic loading (such as spacecraft dockings/undockings) and orbital thermal cycling,” the NASA said in its ISS Transition Plan.
The US space agency said the ISS will be “fully used and safely operated” through 2030.
Axiom-4 Mission, led by the US space agency Axiom Space, will carry the first Indian to space in 41 years. Indian Air Force group captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the pilot for the mission, will spend 14 days in the International Space Station (ISS), leading experiments on India’s behalf.
The Axiom-4 mission has faced many postponements.
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 19 June and 22 June.
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The new Axiom space station
The new space station will be significantly different from the existing ISS in aspects of design, structure, size and also the provisions for international experiments. It will have a payload power thermal module (PPTM) which will act as the nucleus of the space station providing power and thermal control. It will have two habitat modules to house permanent and guest astronaut crew, and a research and manufacturing facility with labs and observatories.
Thales Alenia Space, a French aerospace company which has partnered with Axiom to build certain specialised parts of the space station, has already started welding and machining activities required for the primary structures of the space station’s first module.
Space company Axiom said the first pieces of the fabricated flight hardware are beginning to come together, and the module will be sent to the company headquarters in Houston in the coming months, where “we will complete the final assembly and integration”.
During an earlier press conference, Axiom-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson said that after the first module flies to space, four more will be sent over a period of three years. Before the ISS is decommissioned, the Axiom station will undock and start functioning.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)