New Space Station Crew Members to Launch and Dock the Same Day

HOUSTON -- Three new crew members are set to launch to the International Space Station on a six-hour flight to travel from the launch pad to their destination.

Chris Cassidy of NASA, along with Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), are scheduled to launch in their Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:43 p.m. CDT, Thursday, March 28, (2:43 a.m. March 29 Baikonur time). Live coverage on NASA Television begins at 2:30 p.m.

Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will become the first station crew members to make an expedited trip to the orbiting laboratory. Instead of taking the standard two days to rendezvous and dock with the station, they will need only four orbits of Earth to reach the station. This flight will employ rendezvous techniques used recently with three unpiloted Russian Progress cargo spacecraft.

The crew will dock with the station's Poisk module at 9:32 p.m., with NASA TV coverage beginning at 8:30 p.m. Hatches are scheduled to open between the Soyuz and station at 11:10 p.m., with NASA TV coverage beginning at 10:30 p.m.

Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will join Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, Tom Marshburn of NASA and Roman Romanenko of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the outpost since December 2012.

NASA TV also will provide extensive coverage of activities from March 21-27 leading up to the flight. All times are Central:

March 21, Thursday

1 p.m. -- Video File of the Expedition 35/36 crew activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan

March 25, Monday

11 a.m. -- Video File of the Expedition 35/36 crew activities and Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft encapsulation in Baikonur, Kazakhstan

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New Space Station Crew Members to Launch and Dock the Same Day