ESA TV coverage of the STS-122/Columbus mission commencing 07 February

Following postponement in December, the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis has now been confirmed for Thursday 7th. February at 19.45 GMT. Mission STS-122 with European astronauts Leopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel on board, will carry the European Columbus laboratory into orbit, establishing Europe as a full partner in the operation and utilisation of man’s permanent science outpost in space.

ESA TV will provide re-broadcast of NASA TV for the following key events:

Thursday 7 Feb 2008, 14:45 – 20:45 GMT (Sat coordinates below): Full relay of NASA TV coverage of pre-launch events and launch (19:45 GMT).

Monday 11 Feb 2008: Columbus module 1st ingress (scheduled at 20:00 GMT).

Wednesday 13 Feb 2008: Mission inflight call (scheduled at 13:00 GMT) with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ESA DG Jean Jacques Dordain (Schlegel and Eyharts plus mission commanders participating)

Friday 15 Feb 2008: Joint Crew News Conference (scheduled at 14:50 GMT).

Monday 18 Feb 2008: Landing (scheduled at 14:59 GMT).

Also, daily mission highlights will be re-broadcast from NASA (starting Fri 8 Feb at 06:00 GMT).

Further announcements/timings will follow for full detail of launch day coverage and all further events.

As previously, ESA will make most feeds avalailable for MPEG2 download via ftp: Server name: esa.contentcoders.com

Login: esa

Password/userid: ftp4esa

Please be informed that these files will be too big to access via a web browser and that you need to use a ftp download manager.

Please note that all NASA TV programming is subject to last-minute changes. We will do our best to deliver late advisory/updates in the event of changing schedules.

The line-up time for all these SCPC feeds will be 5 minutes

More background information can be found on: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Satellite coordinates for Thur 7 Feb and Fri 8 Feb:

Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 1 (AB1) at 12.5degW, Transponder F5, Channel E, Freq = 12660.75MHz, Pol = horizontal,SR = 6.1113 Ms/s, FEC = 3/4, signal PAL MPEG2 4:2:0 in the clear

For events after launch – please see further announcements.

For further information on these feeds, please contact the ESA TV producer Chris Courtenay Taylor: tel + 44 7774 275 951 or mail chrisct@worldwidegroup.ltd.uk

For the latest transmission schedule, go to http://television.esa.int. For all enquires on transmissions, send contact ingrid.van.de.vyver@esa.int or call her mobile phone +32 495 209541. For ordering video tapes and questions on footage via ftp-transfer, contact television@esa.int.