First ESA long-duration mission onboard the ISS given 1 July start

N° 18-2006 - Paris, 17 June 2006

First ESA long-duration mission onboard the ISS given 1 July start

With NASA's announcement today of the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on 1
July, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, from Germany, is set to spend six to
seven months in space as a member of the permanent crew of the International
Space Station.

Discovery is now scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Cape Canaveral, Florida at 21:48 CEST (19:48 GMT). Docking with the ISS is
scheduled for the third day of the mission.

Once onboard the ISS, Thomas Reiter will join the current permanent crew,
working alongside Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA flight
engineer Jeffrey Williams. An ESA astronaut since 1992, Reiter already has
experience of long-duration spaceflight, having spent 179 days onboard the
Russian space station Mir in 1995/1996 on ESA's EuroMir 95 mission.

With this new mission dubbed "Astrolab", ESA will inaugurate the long-term
presence of European astronauts onboard the ISS. The mission also marks the
return to a three-member permanent crew operating the orbital facility. This
larger crew will mean that more time can be devoted to science experiments.
Also marking the Shuttle's eventual return to flight, this mission will in
addition be a go-ahead signal for the resumption of ISS assembly, with the
upcoming launches of European-built Nodes 2 and 3 and ESA's own Columbus
laboratory.


Already flying with Reiter on the Astrolab mission will be some key ESA
equipment to be integrated on the Station, including the first Minus-Eighty
degree Laboratory Freezer for the ISS (MELFI), a facility developed for
long-term conservation of biological samples and experiment results.

This will also be the first time that a European control centre is used for
a long-duration human spaceflight mission on board the ISS, paving the way
for an increased ESA presence onboard the international facility with the
arrival of the Columbus laboratory. The Columbus Control Centre in
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, will be the hub of European activity during the
Astrolab mission.

For the launch of this milestone mission, ESA is organising a live video
event, broadcast to its Headquarters and establishments. ESA experts will be
on hand for interviews.

ESA TV will provide extensive coverage of the mission including the final
preparations, with transmissions as follows:

19 June STS-121 B-roll with best images released so far by NASA
20 June Columbus laboratory
27 June Astrolab mission video news release
27 June (live) Arrival of STS-121 in Florida for launch
29 June (live) Pre-launch news conference from Kennedy Space Center
1 July (live) Launch day coverage, from 12:00 GMT - 14:00 GMT (not
continuous)
2 July (live) Mission status briefing, with first quick look at Shuttle
ascent images
3 July (live) Docking with ISS, STS-121 crew ingress
6 July (live) Joint crew news conference
13 July (live) Landing at Kennedy Space Center

In addition, all NASA-TV flight day highlights from the preceding day in
orbit will be rebroadcast at 04:00 GMT daily. Satellite details for these
and the exact times for the above transmissions will be posted on
http://television.esa.int around three to five days prior to the
transmission concerned (please note that tape copies of live events cannot
be made available).

The launch and mission can be followed on the web at : www.esa.int/astrolab.




Media representatives wishing to follow the event at one of the ESA
establishments listed below are requested to fill in the attached
registration form and fax it back to the location of their choice.

For further information, please contact :
ESA Media Relations Division
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl