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First ESA long-duration mission onboard the ISS given 1 July start 
ESA PR 18-2006. With NASA’s announcement today of the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on 1 July, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, from Germany, is set to spend six to seven months in space as a member of the permanent crew of the International Space Station. Discovery is now scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 21:49 CEST (19:49 GMT). Docking with the ISS is scheduled for the third day of the mission.
Once onboard the ISS, Thomas Reiter will join the current permanent crew, working alongside Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA flight engineer Jeffrey Williams. An ESA astronaut since 1992, Reiter already has experience of long-duration spaceflight, having spent 179 days onboard the Russian space station Mir in 1995/1996 on ESA’s EuroMir 95 mission.
Already flying with Reiter on the Astrolab mission will be some key ESA equipment to be integrated on the Station, including the first Minus-Eighty degree Laboratory Freezer for the ISS (MELFI), a facility developed for long-term conservation of biological samples and experiment results.
For the launch of this milestone mission, ESA is organising a live video event, broadcast to its Headquarters and establishments. ESA experts will be on hand for interviews.
ESA TV will provide extensive coverage of the mission including the final preparations, with transmissions as follows:
19 June STS-121 B-roll with best images released so far by NASA In addition, all NASA-TV flight day highlights from the preceding day in orbit will be rebroadcast at 04:00 GMT daily. Satellite details for these and the exact times for the above transmissions will be posted on http://television.esa.int around three to five days prior to the transmission concerned (please note that tape copies of live events cannot be made available). The launch and mission can be followed on the web at: www.esa.int/astrolab.
Media representatives wishing to follow the event at one of the ESA establishments listed in the press release are requested to fill in the registration form and fax it back to the location of their choice.
For further information, please contact: ESA Media Relations Division Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155 Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
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