June 25, 2025 at 12:39 AM EDT After a series of delays from weather to rocket engines to a leak on the International Space Station, NASA has cleared the way for SpaceX to launch the Axiom Space Ax-4 crew on the Space Coast. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with a new Crew Dragon capsule looks to lift off with the four members of the private mission from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 2:31 a.m. Wednesday with a backup opportunity on Thursday at 2:09 a.m. The first-stage booster is making its second flight and will aim for a recovery landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1, which means one or more sonic booms may be heard across parts of Central Florida in the wee hours of the morning. “There is the possibility that residents of Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions,” SpaceX stated in an advisory. Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions at the launch site. The Ax-4 crew is led by commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space employee who is making her fifth trip to space, and second time leading an Axiom Space mission. With already 675 days on orbit in the books, she holds the record for any woman and any American for time in space. She’s taking up three customers whose seats were paid for by countries that have not sent an astronaut into space in more than four decades. Taking the role of pilot is India’s Shubhanshu Shukla while Sławosz Uznański of Poland, a European Space Agency project astronaut, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are mission specialists. The Axiom Ax-4 crew stop to talk with family in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 before driving in some SpaceX Teslas out to Launch Pad 39-A for a launch attempt early Wednesday. From left to right are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, commander and Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson, and Sławosz Uznański of Poland.(Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The Axiom Ax-4 crew stop to talk with family in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 before driving in some SpaceX Teslas out to Launch Pad 39-A for a launch attempt early Wednesday. From left to right are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, commander and Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson, and Sławosz Uznański of Poland.(Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The Axiom Ax-4 crew stop to talk with family in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 before driving in some SpaceX Teslas out to Launch Pad 39-A for a launch attempt early Wednesday. From left to right are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, commander and Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson, and Sławosz Uznański of Poland.(Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The Axiom Ax-4 crew stop to talk with family in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 before driving in some SpaceX Teslas out to Launch Pad 39-A for a launch attempt early Wednesday. From left to right are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, commander and Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson, and Sławosz Uznański of Poland.(Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The Axiom Ax-4 crew stop to talk with family in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 before driving in some SpaceX Teslas out to Launch Pad 39-A for a launch attempt early Wednesday. From left to right are Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, commander and Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson, and Sławosz Uznański of Poland.(Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) Show Caption