NASA Television has extensive coverage planned for the launch and arrival of the Expedition 7 crew to the International Space Station. NASA TV will also carry the first landing of U.S. astronauts in a Russian spacecraft, when the Expedition 6 crew returns after more than five months in space.
Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer / NASA Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu are scheduled for launch at approximately 11:50 p.m. EDT, April 25 aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. On May 4, the Expedition 6 crew will return to Earth in the Soyuz TMA-1 craft, currently docked to the Station, landing in Kazakhstan completing their more than five-month mission.
Coverage on NASA TV includes:
* Replay of Expedition 7 news conference, Star City, Russia, 9:00 a.m. EDT, April 18
* B-roll video, Expedition 7 crew pre-launch preparations, Baikonur, 12:00 p.m. EDT, April 23-25
* Replay of final pre-launch news conference, Expedition 7 crew, Baikonur, 9:00 a.m. EDT, April 25
* Live Expedition 7 launch coverage and commentary from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Baikonur beginning 11:00 p.m. EDT, April 25
* Live Expedition 7 docking coverage and commentary from the Mission Control Center in Korolev, Russia, beginning 1:00 a.m. EDT, April 28* Joint Expedition 6/7 crew news conference from orbit at approximately 11:28 a.m. EDT, April 29. There will be limited question and answer capability at NASA centers, as less than 20 minutes is available for the news conference.
* Live Expedition 6 landing coverage and commentary begins at 2 p.m. EDT, May 3 with the Space Station change of command ceremony
* Live undocking coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. EDT, May 3; followed at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT with deorbit burn and landing coverage
* There will be live landing commentary, but no live TV coverage, from JSC and Kazakhstan, for the Expedition 6 landing
* Video B-roll of post-landing activities, crewmembers’ return to their training center in Star City, Russia, and crew/family reunions will be broadcast May 4, when available
NASA TV is broadcast on AMC-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.
For more information and scheduling for NASA TV on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html