NASA Television Coverage Set for Next Space Station Crew Launch

Image Credit:  NASA/Victor Zelentsov

NASA Television will broadcast prelaunch activities for the next three crew members flying to the International Space Station, followed by extensive live coverage of their launch and docking to the orbital laboratory Wednesday, May 28.

Expedition 40/41 Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA, Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will launch to the space station in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29, Baikonur time).

NASA TV coverage begins at 3 p.m. and will include video of the prelaunch activities leading up to and including the crew members boarding their spacecraft.

The crew is scheduled to dock to the station's Rassvet module less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking begins at 9 p.m.

Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos will greet the new crew when the hatches open at about 11:25 p.m. NASA TV hatch opening coverage begins at 11 p.m.

**Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst will remain aboard the station until mid-November. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev will return to Earth in mid-September, leaving Suraev as Expedition 41 Commander.


For the full schedule of Soyuz prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, as well as NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For b-roll and other media resources, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews

NOTE:

**Wiseman is from Cockeysville, Maryland