Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New Station Crew Set For 2:09 P.M. Launch In Kazakhstan

A multinational crew of three will board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at a central Asian spaceport today and blast off on an expedition to the International Space Station.

Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, U.S. astronaut Catherine Coleman and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli of Italy were given a green light by a state commission for launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:09 p.m. EST.

You can watch launch coverage live here in The Flame Trench beginning at 1:15 p.m. Click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer. Live coverage of docking at the station at 3:12 p.m. Friday will begin at 2:30 p.m. that day.

The launch will start a burst of activity at the station that will include the arrival of robotic Russian, European and Japanese cargo carriers as well as a visiting shuttle crew in early February. Discovery and six astronauts are slated to blast off from Kennedy Space Center during a window of opportunity that will extend from Feb. 3 through Feb. 10.

The three astronauts will be at the space station in April to mark the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's mission, the first human flight into space.

"As the crew that is onboard the International Space Station on this very special day, we won't be walking on the pages of history, we'll be floating," Coleman told reporters during a final preflight news conference.

The three space flyers are members of the 26th expedition to the station, which has been staffed continuously since November 2000. The crew is scheduled to return to Earth in their Soyuz spacecraft next May.

Check out the Official Press Kit

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA image of the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft shortly after arrival to the launch pad Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (AP Photo/NASA - Carla Cioffi)

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