[sarex] ExpeditionOne TV

[K6due@xxxxxxx]

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington DC            October 24, 2000
(Phone:  202/358-1726)

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  281/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N00-51

NASA TELEVISION TO BROADAST LAUNCH AND DOCKING
OF FIRST SPACE STATION RESIDENT CREW

     NASA Television plans extensive coverage of the launch and 
docking of the vehicle carrying the first resident crew to live 
aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew, Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander 
Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, is scheduled 
for launch at approximately 2:53 a.m. EST, Oct. 31, atop a Soyuz 
rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch 
initiates a two-day flight to the station, culminating in a 
docking on Nov. 2. Once docked to the new facility, the 
crewmembers will begin a four-month stay, beginning the permanent 
occupancy of the international complex.

Throughout the week and weekend, NASA TV will broadcast footage of 
the crew's pre-launch preparations at Baikonur and other locations 
on the NASA TV Video File at noon Eastern time.

On the day before launch, Oct. 30, NASA TV will replay the crew's 
final pre-launch news conference from the cosmonaut crew quarters 
at Baikonur at 5 a.m. EST, with subsequent replays at 8 a.m. and 
10 a.m.

Launch coverage on Oct. 31 will begin at 2 a.m. EST, anchored from 
the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, and 
the ISS Flight Control Room at NASA's Johnson Space Center, 
Houston, TX.

A post-launch news conference at the Russian Mission Control 
Center will be conducted about 90 minutes after liftoff, with 
questions taken only from reporters in Korolev. Coverage will 
continue with periodic commentary and mission updates throughout 
the two days of the Expedition One crew's free flight to the 
station.

Live coverage of docking to the ISS Zvezda Service Module will 
begin about thirty minutes before the Soyuz linkup. The docking 
time on Nov. 2 is expected to be around 4:20 a.m. EST. A black-
and-white camera on the Soyuz should provide live TV of the 
docking itself. Approximately 90 minutes after docking, the 
Expedition One crew will open the hatch to Zvezda, but no live TV 
will be available. A video replay of the historic hatch opening 
may be provided by the crew on subsequent orbits through Russian 
ground stations.

Once the Expedition crewmembers arrive on the station, commentary 
will continue through the duration of their stay on orbit, some of 
which will appear on NASA TV. The primary method for distributing 
mission commentary will be through the human space flight website 
at 

              http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

 or through the Mission Audio circuits to NASA Centers.

Air-to-ground conversations between the crewmembers and flight 
controllers in Houston and Korolev will be distributed in real 
time on Mission Audio circuits and as streaming audio on the human 
space flight website.

Television will be sporadic during the course of the Expedition 
One mission, transmitted through either Russian ground stations 
periodically or by a slow-scan video system available through the 
ISS early S-band communications system.

The crew is scheduled to return to Earth on the STS-102 mission to 
the ISS, scheduled for launch in February 2001 to bring the 
Expedition Two crew to the station.
----
Via the sarex mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe sarex" to Majordomo@amsat.org