The visit of a three-person crew to the International
Space Station (ISS) along with the delivery of a new Soyuz
return vehicle will be covered on NASA Television beginning
at
3 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 27, with commentary and available
downlink television from Mission Control, Houston. Docking is
scheduled just before 4 a.m. with hatch opening planned for
5:20 a.m.
Russian Commander Yuri Gidzenko, a member of the first crew
that lived on the ISS, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the
European Space Agency and space-flight participant Mark
Shuttleworth of South Africa were launched on a Soyuz rocket
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier today for
a two-day ride to the station.
Activities of the “taxi” crew and its Expedition Four hosts
will be covered during the daily ISS commentary at 11 a.m.
EDT throughout the week of April 29 on NASA TV. Expedition
Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz
and Dan Bursch are beginning the fifth month of a planned
six-month mission. They are scheduled to return to Earth
aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in mid-June.
NASA TV coverage of the “taxi” crew’s undocking in the Soyuz
vehicle currently linked to the station will begin at 7 p.m.
EDT, Saturday, May 4. The undocking is scheduled for 8:20
p.m. EDT with landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan several
hours later. NASA TV will not cover the landing.
NASA TV can be found on GE-2, Transponder 9C, vertical
polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with
audio at 6.8 MHz.
