Live coverage of Expedition 36 / "Volare" launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Date: Tue, May 28, 2013 | 19:30 - 04:30 GMT | 21:30 - 06:30 CEST

Type: ESA TV Live

Format: 16:9

On 28 May, Italian ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, American Karen Nyberg and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin will be launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a challenging 6-month mission on the International Space Station.

Launch is scheduled at 20:31:24 GMT

Docking and ingress to the ISS will occur the same night, with rendez-vous taking place just 4 orbits/6 hours after launch. This will be only the second such same-day launch-to-docking and the first for a European astronaut.

ESA TV will provide live coverage in 3 parts for launch, docking and hatch-opening/crew greetings; with images from the historic cosmodrome, the mission control centre near Moscow, from inside the Soyuz capsule, the docking cameras and onboard ISS after hatch-opening.

The launch transmission will include launch-day images of the crew suit-up, walk-out and their farewell wave as they go onto the launcher. The docking part will include comment from ESA's ISS Programme Manager Bernardo Patti. The hatch-opening part will include comment from ESA's Head of the Astronaut Corps Frank De Winne. After hatch-opening and ingress, transmission should include images of the crew talking to their families viewing the events from Baikonur.

Transmssion times as follows:

Launch: 1930-2100GMT
Docking: 0150-0220GMT (29 May)
Ingress: 0325-0430GMT

All transmissions will be cleanfeed with ambient sound only although some video inserts may have commentary. ESA webcast will be commentated over the same feed.

As soon as possible after transmission, highlights will be posted on the ESA TV ftp server.

Bona fide broadcasters requiring access to the launch cleanfeed (HD) should contact the producers.

More background information can be found on http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Volare 

Satellite Parameters:

Eutelsat 10A (@10degEast)

Txp B5 ChA - 9 MHz
D/link freq: 11126.83 polarisation X / horizontal
Signal: SD MPEG2 4:2:0 SR 5.632 FEC 3/4 Mod DVB-S/QPSK mono audio all tracks, audio PIds open

For any inquiries regarding satellite or ftp reception please contact the ESA TV production team:
Dominique Detain at dominique.detain@esa.int or + 33 685 114 681 Chris Courtenay Taylor at chrisct@worldwidepictures.tv or + 44 7774 275 951.