Kyle Herring
Headquarters, Washington                 Oct. 19, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-4504)

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N01-58

NASA TV COVERAGE OF SOYUZ TAXI CREW ARRIVAL AT ISS

     NASA Television will provide commentary and coverage of 
the arrival of a new Soyuz return vehicle and its three-
person crew at the International Space Station beginning at 
6 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Russian "taxi" crew Commander Victor Afanasyev and Flight 
Engineer Konstantin Kozeev, along with European Space Agency 
(ESA) Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere, will lift off at 
4:59 a.m. EDT Oct. 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 
Kazakhstan on a two-day journey to reach the station. 

Docking is scheduled about 6:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday, with the 
hatch opening and greeting by Expedition Three Commander 
Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight 
Engineer Mikhail Tyurin expected approximately 90 minutes 
later. Live television is expected on NASA TV of both the 
docking and the hatch opening through Russian TV systems.

Haignere is flying for ESA under a commercial agreement 
between CNES, the French space agency, and the Russian 
Aviation and Space Agency. In addition to delivering a fresh 
Soyuz return vehicle to the ISS, Haignere will conduct an 
extensive program of scientific investigations as she and 
her crewmates spend eight days aboard the station.  The taxi 
crew will depart the station on Oct. 30 (Eastern time) 
aboard the Soyuz currently docked to the station and will 
land in Kazakhstan about two hours later.

NASA Television is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a 
frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.

                         -end-