SpaceX's Ax-4 Astronaut Mission To ISS Delayed Over Propellant Leak: New Launch Date Yet To Be Announced

Elon Musk's SpaceX delayed the Ax-4 private mission to transport 4 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

What Happened: "Standing down from tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections," the company shared in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday.

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The launch, which was supposed to take place on Wednesday morning via the company's Falcon 9 rocket, has been delayed due to a Liquid Oxygen leak. No new launch date has been set.

"Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date," SpaceX shared in the post.

Standing down from tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections. Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date pic.twitter.com/FwRc8k2Bc0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 11, 2025

The mission includes an international team of astronauts who will spend two weeks on the ISS performing over 60 different experiments. The crew includes Axiom Space's director of human spaceflight Peggy Whitson, Shubhanshu Shukla, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu.

Why It Matters: Cathie Wood's ARK Invest recently projected a $2.5 trillion valuation for SpaceX by the year 2030.

However, officials from NASA and the Pentagon are also urging SpaceX's competitors, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to expedite the development of alternative rockets in the fallout from the feud between U.S. President Donald Trump and Musk.

Blue Origin unveiled a new launch vehicle for its own Lunar and Mars ambitions. Blue Origin also aims to put two crews on the lunar surface, reports suggest.

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