On the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic landing on the moon, a multinational crew of space travelers is scheduled to arrive at International space station on Saturday, 20th July. NASA Television and the agency’s website will host live coverage of Crew’s launch and arrival.
Andrew Morgan, an astronaut at NASA, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are preparing to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft at 12:28 p.m. EDT July 20 (9:28 p.m. Kazakhstan time). The four orbits, six-hour journey to spaceflight will first time of Morgan, the second for Parmitano and third for Skvortsov.
The total population of orbiting laboratory will be six after the arrival of the trio, including three NASA astronauts. The new crew members will dock to the station’s Zvezda service module at 6:50 p.m. About two hours later, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open, and the arriving crew will be greeted by Expedition 60 Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos and NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch, who have been aboard the complex since March.
The Expedition 60 Crew will continue to work on experiments covering biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity’s only permanently occupied microgravity laboratory.
Video of the crew’s pre-launch activities in Baikonur will air on NASA TV in the days preceding launch, beginning Monday, July 15.
TV coverage of the July 20 launch and docking activities is as follows (all times EDT):
- 11:30 a.m. – Soyuz MS-13 launch coverage
- 6 p.m. – Docking coverage
- 8 p.m. – Hatch opening and welcome coverage