WASHINGTON – The launch of Expedition 15, the next crew to the International Space Station, and the landing of Expedition 14 are among the events scheduled for broadcast live on NASA Television April 7-20.
Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, are scheduled to launch Saturday at 1:31 p.m. EDT for a two-day trip aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-10 craft to the station. Their spacecraft is scheduled to dock Monday at approximately 3:12 p.m.
Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crewmember since December, will remain on the station joining the Expedition 15 crew. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.
NASA Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have been orbiting on the station since September 2006, and Simonyi will land in north central Kazakhstan on April 20 at approximately 9:37 a.m. aboard the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft that is currently docked at the station.
The events and planned broadcasts include (all times approximate, EDT):
Saturday, April 7:
12:30 p.m. – Expedition 15 launch coverage (launch 1:31 p.m.)
3 p.m. – Video File B-roll replay of Expedition 15 launch activities and launch
Monday, April 9:
2:45 p.m. – Expedition 15 docking and hatch opening coverage (docking
3:12 p.m., post-docking news conference 3:30 p.m., hatch opening 4:55 p.m.)
7 p.m. – Video File B-roll replay of Expedition 15 docking and hatch opening
Tuesday, April 10:
5:30 p.m. – News conference with all six crewmembers on aboard the station with multi-center question and answer capability for media participating at NASA centers
Friday, April 20:
2:30 a.m. – Expedition 14 farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure 3:05 a.m.)
5:45 a.m. – Expedition 14 undocking coverage (undocking at 6:21 a.m.)
8:15 a.m. – Expedition 14 deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn 8:47 a.m., landing 9:36 a.m.)
Video of crew recovery activities at the landing site in north central Kazakhstan is expected to be broadcast on NASA TV as a special Video File on April 20 at 6 p.m., with a final Video File feed of the crew’s return to Star City, Russia at 9:30 p.m.
NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, NASA Television will be seen on AMC-7, at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization. In both instances, a Digital Video Broadcast (DVB)-compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) (with modulation of QPSK/DBV, data rate of 36.86 and FEC 3/4) will be needed for reception.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
NASA TV’s digital conversion will require members of the broadcast media to upgrade with an “addressable” Integrated Receiver Decoder, or IRD, to participate in live news events and interviews, press briefings and receive NASA’s Video File news feeds on a dedicated media services channel. NASA mission coverage will air on a digital NASA public services (free to air) channel, which only needs a basic IRD.
