NASA HQ News: NASA Television to Broadcast Next Space Station Crew Launch, Docking

September 20, 2019 MEDIA ADVISORY M19-099 NASA Television to Broadcast Next Space Station Crew Launch, Docking   NASA astronaut Jessica Meir runs through procedures Sept. 11, 2019, aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft during an initial Soyuz vehicle fit check in the Integration Building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Meir, spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori of the United Arab Emirates and Expedition 61 crewmember Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos will launch Sept. 25 on the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a mission on the International Space Station. Credits: NASA/Victor Zelentsov A multinational crew, including NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and the first space traveler from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station Wednesday, Sept. 25. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the crew’s launch and arrival. Meir, Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the UAE are set to launch at 9:57 a.m. EDT (6:57 p.m. Kazakhstan time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft. The four-orbit, six-hour journey will be the third spaceflight for Skripochka and the first for Meir and Almansoori. Almansoori is flying on an eight-day mission as a spaceflight participant under a contract between the UAE and Roscosmos. The new crew members will dock to the station’s Zvezda service module at 3:45 p.m. About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open and the new residents will be greeted by station commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. Their arrival will increase the orbiting laboratory’s population to nine people until Oct. 3, when Hague and Ovchinin, who are completing a mission of more than 200 days, will return to Earth with Almansoori on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. Meir and Skripochka will spend more than six months on the station. Coverage of launch and docking activities is as follows (all times EDT): 9 a.m. – Soyuz MS-15 launch coverage 3 p.m. – Docking coverage 5 p.m. – Hatch opening and welcome coverage The crew will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity’s only permanently occupied microgravity laboratory. Check out the full NASA TV schedule, and video streaming information, at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. -end-

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