NASA TV Coverage Set for Next Soyuz Space Station Crew Launch

WASHINGTON — NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of the launch and docking of the next crew members who will fly to the International Space Station on Tuesday, May 28.

Expedition 36/37 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA, Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency are scheduled to launch at 4:31 p.m. EDT (2:31 a.m. Kazakh time May 29), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

They will dock their Soyuz capsule to the Earth-facing Rassvet module of the space station at 10:17 p.m. following an expedited four-orbit rendezvous.

NASA TV coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m., and include video of all pre-launch activities that day leading to the crew boarding its spacecraft. Docking coverage begins at 9:30 p.m.

At 11:55 p.m., hatches between the Soyuz and space station will open and Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano will be greeted by Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight engineer Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA. That trio has been aboard the station since late March. Hatch opening coverage begins at 11:30 p.m.

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano will remain aboard the station until mid-November. Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will return to Earth in mid-September, leaving Yurchikhin as the Expedition 37 commander.

The full NASA TV schedule of the Soyuz prelaunch, launch and docking coverage is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntvnews

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For high-resolution photographs of prelaunch, launch and docking activities, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto

Follow Nyberg on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/AstroKarenN

Join the conversation on Twitter by following hashtags #Soyuz, #Exp36 and #ISS. To learn more about all the ways to Connect and Collaborate with NASA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect

For more information about the International Space Station, its crew and ongoing research visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station