NASA TV Coverage Set For Next Soyuz Space Station Crew Launch

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Dec 10, 2012, 03:39 ET

HOUSTON, Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Television will provide live coverage of next week's launch and docking of the next crew members who will fly to the International Space Station.

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Tom Marshburn of NASA, Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency are scheduled to launch to the space station in their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft at 6:12 a.m. CST (6:12 p.m. Baikonur time) Wednesday, Dec. 19, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV launch coverage will begin at 5 a.m. and include video of that day's activities leading to the crew boarding its spacecraft.

The trio will dock the Soyuz spacecraft to the station's Rassvet module at 8:10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 21. NASA TV coverage of docking begins at 7:30 a.m. About three hours later, hatches will open between the Soyuz and the station. Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will be greeted by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford of NASA and flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin of Roscosmos, who have been living and working on the orbiting laboratory since late October. NASA TV's hatch opening coverage begins at 10:15 a.m.

Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will remain aboard the station until May 2013. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return to Earth March 15, leaving Hadfield as the first Canadian commander of the space station.

The full schedule of the Soyuz prelaunch, launch and docking coverage includes (all times Central):

Friday, Dec. 14
1 p.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 crew activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan

Monday, Dec. 17
11 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 spacecraft encapsulation, rocket mating and rollout in Baikonur, Kazakhstan

Tuesday, Dec. 18
11 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 Russian State Commission meeting and final pre-launch crew news conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan

Wednesday, Dec. 19
5 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 launch coverage (launch at 6:12 a.m.; includes video of the crew's pre-launch activities at 5:15 a.m.)
9 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 pre-launch, launch and post-launch interviews

Friday Dec. 21
7:30 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 docking coverage (docking at 8:10 a.m.) followed by the post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia
10:15 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (hatch opening at 10:45 a.m.)
1 p.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 docking, hatch opening and welcoming

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #ISS. To learn more about all the ways to connect and collaborate with NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

SOURCE NASA