NASA Television will provide commentary and coverage of
the arrival of a new Soyuz return vehicle and its three-
person crew at the International Space Station beginning at
6 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 23.
Russian “taxi” crew Commander Victor Afanasyev and Flight
Engineer Konstantin Kozeev, along with European Space Agency
(ESA) Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere, will lift off at
4:59 a.m. EDT Oct. 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan on a two-day journey to reach the station.
Docking is scheduled about 6:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday, with the
hatch opening and greeting by Expedition Three Commander
Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight
Engineer Mikhail Tyurin expected approximately 90 minutes
later. Live television is expected on NASA TV of both the
docking and the hatch opening through Russian TV systems.
Haignere is flying for ESA under a commercial agreement
between CNES, the French space agency, and the Russian
Aviation and Space Agency. In addition to delivering a fresh
Soyuz return vehicle to the ISS, Haignere will conduct an
extensive program of scientific investigations as she and
her crewmates spend eight days aboard the station. The taxi
crew will depart the station on Oct. 30 (Eastern time)
aboard the Soyuz currently docked to the station and will
land in Kazakhstan about two hours later.
NASA Television is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a
frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.
