HOUSTON, April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over the next several weeks, NASA Television will provide coverage of activities surrounding the upcoming International Space Station crew rotation. Coverage will include departure of three crew members now living aboard the space station. It also will include pre-launch activities, launch and arrival of three new residents.
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Beginning April 23, NASA TV video files will document Expedition 31 crew training activities with Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba of NASA and Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. NASA TV also will broadcast the crew's news conference and ceremonial visit to Red Square in Moscow on April 25.
NASA TV will broadcast the change of command ceremony aboard the station at 2 p.m. CDT on April 25. Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank of NASA will hand over command to Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos.
On April 27, Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will depart the station and Expedition 31 will begin aboard the complex. The departing trio will return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, completing a five-and-a-half-month mission.
Don Pettit of NASA, Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency and Kononenko, who have been on the station since late December 2011, will remain aboard until July 1.
On May 14, Acaba, Padalka and Revin will launch in the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will arrive at the station on May 16 to join Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers and return the crew size to six.
NASA TV's scheduled coverage includes (all times Central):
Monday, April 23
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew qualification training simulation runs in Star City, Russia.
Tuesday, April 24
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew qualification training simulation runs in Star City.
Wednesday, April 25
1 p.m - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew news conference in Star City and visit to Red Square in Moscow.
2 p.m. - Live Expedition 30/31 change of command ceremony.
Thursday, April 26
11:45 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 crew farewell and hatch-closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 12 a.m. on April 27).
Friday, April 27
3 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 3:18 a.m.)
5:30 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 5:49 a.m., landing scheduled at 6:45 a.m.).
8 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-22 landing and post-landing activities.
6 p.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-22 landing and post-landing activities, including an interview with Burbank and the return of Shkaplerov and Ivanishin to Chkalovsky Airfield near Star City.
Wednesday, May 2
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew departure activities for Baikonur, Kazakhstan from Star City.
Thursday, May 10
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew activities in Baikonur.
Friday, May 11
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew activities in Baikonur.
Sunday, May 13
12 p.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M rocket mating and rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur.
Monday, May 14
11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M final pre-launch crew news conference and Russian State Commission meeting in Baikonur.
9 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M launch coverage (launch scheduled at 10:01 p.m.), including pre-launch activities and launch replays.
Tuesday, May 15
12 a.m. - Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M pre-launch and launch video b-roll and post-launch interviews.
Wednesday, May 16
11:00 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M docking coverage (docking scheduled at 11:38 p.m.), followed by the post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia.
Thursday, May 17
2:00 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (ceremony scheduled at 2:35 a.m.)
4 a.m. - Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony
For NASA TV downlink, schedule updates and streaming video information, visit:
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:
SOURCE NASA
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