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 BROADCAST 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.

-end-