SB SPACE ARL ARLS004 ARLS004 Three Hams Scheduled to Head to ISS This Weekend

NASA will televise the launch and docking of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for 8:40 PM (CDT) Saturday, July 14 (0140 UTC, Sunday, July 15). NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI, are completing preparations as they undergo their final Soyuz spacecraft fit. Live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan begins at 8:30 PM CDT on Saturday, July 14 (0130 UTC July 15).

The trio will arrive at the station on July 16, joining NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba, KE5DAR, and two Russian cosmonauts: Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, RN3BS. Acaba, Padalka and Revin have been aboard the ISS since mid-May. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide -- who also will be part of the Expedition 33 crew starting in September -- will return to Earth in mid-November.

A link with NASA TV's scheduled coverage is available at, http://www.arrl.org/news/three-hams-scheduled-to-head-to-iss-this-weekend. NNNN /EX