NASA Previews ISS Expedition 18

NASA officials will preview the work of the next International Space Station expedition at 2 p.m. today.

You can watch a webcast of the NASA Television's live coverage of the briefing here at The Flame Trench.

Click on the screen capture above to see a larger more up to date version and a link that will launch the live NASA TV video feed. Click "read more" for more details on the briefing.

Here's NASA's recap of the event, hosted by Johnson Space Center in Houston:

Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Lonchakov and U.S. spaceflight participant Richard Garriott are scheduled to launch in a Soyuz spacecraft Oct. 12 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

They will arrive at the station Oct. 14. Garriott will return home with the two Russian members of the Expedition 17 crew on Oct. 24. Fincke and Lonchakov will join NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who has been on board the orbiting complex since June.

The briefers who will preview Expedition 18 are:

-- Michael Suffredini, International Space Station Program manager
-- Susan Brand, Expedition 18 increment manager
-- Ron Spencer, Expedition 18 lead flight director
-- Julie Robinson, International Space Station Program scientist

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the picture of the International Space Station, taken by the STS-124 crew as they departed the station in June. Photo credit: NASA