The departure of an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft and the launch and docking of another to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) will air live on NASA Television Monday, Feb. 3, and Wednesday, Feb. 5.
The ISS Progress 52 cargo craft that arrived at the space station last July will undock from the station’s Pirs docking compartment at 11:21 a.m. EST Feb. 3 and move away from the orbiting laboratory to a safe location where it will undergo tests before its planned deorbit into Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday, Feb. 11. NASA TV coverage of the undocking will begin at 11 a.m. Scientists will use the spacecraft to study the effects of weightlessness and temperature extremes on its systems.
On Feb. 5, the ISS Progress 54 cargo craft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:23 a.m. (10:23 p.m. local time in Baikonur) on an expedited, six-hour journey to the space station. NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 11 a.m. Progress 54 will dock to Pirs at 5:24 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 4:45 p.m. The spacecraft is loaded with 2.8 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station crew.
For more information on the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For b-roll and other media resources, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews
For the NASA Television schedule and coordinate, visit:
