India, June 25 -- After multiple failed attempts, Axiom Mission 4, the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, has been launched successfully.
Four-member crew, led by veteran former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, flew to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after the company's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31 a.m. ET Wednesday.
The spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at approximately 7 a.m. ET Thursday to the space-facing port of the space station's Harmony module, according to NASA.
Peggy Whitson, who is the director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, is the commander of the commercial mission, while Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shu...