The arrival to the International Space Station (ISS) of a modernized Russian Soyuz crew return vehicle will be covered live on NASA Television Oct. 31-Nov. 1. The undocking of the currently attached crew-return vehicle will be carried live on Nov. 9. Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC

25 Oct 2002

SPACE STATION CREW-RETURN VEHICLE ACTIVITIES CARRIED ON NASA TV

The arrival to the International Space Station (ISS) of a

modernized Russian Soyuz crew return vehicle will be covered live on NASA Television

Oct. 31-Nov. 1. The undocking of the currently attached crew-return vehicle

will be carried live on Nov. 9.

Soyuz vehicles are ferried to the ISS every six months to provide an

assured crew-return capability for station residents.

Russian Soyuz 5 Commander Sergei Zalyotin, European Space Agency Flight

Engineer Frank DeWinne of Belgium and Russian Flight Engineer Yuri

Lonchakov are scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

Kazakhstan at approximately 10 p.m. EST October 29. They will spend

approximately eight days conducting joint scientific activities with

Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy

Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev, who have been on board the

ISS since June. There will no coverage of the launch on NASA

Television. NASA will issue a status report once the Soyuz reaches

orbit.

Commentary will originate from the ISS flight control room at NASA's

Johnson Space Center, Houston, on Oct. 31 prior to the docking of the

Soyuz and its crew to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment, beginning

at 11 p.m. EST, with available downlink television from cameras on the

station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. Docking is planned at approximately

midnight EST Oct. 31. Coverage will extend through hatch opening and

the greeting between the Soyuz crew and the Expedition Five crew,

expected around 1:40 a.m. EST Nov. 1.

NASA TV also will provide live coverage and commentary of the Nov. 9

departure of the Soyuz crew in the return vehicle currently docked to

the ISS beginning at 3 p.m. EST, with available downlink television

from cameras on the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. Undocking of the

older Soyuz vehicle is expected around 3:30 p.m. EST. There will be no

coverage of landing.