October 27, 2000

EXPEDITION ONE LAUNCH AND DOCKING

The Expedition One Crew -- Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz
Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev -- is
scheduled for launch at approximately 2:53 a.m. EST, October 31,
atop a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The launch initiates a two-day flight to the station, culminating
in a docking on November 2. Once docked to the new facility, the
crewmembers will begin a four-month stay, beginning the permanent
occupancy of the international complex.

NASA Television plans extensive coverage of the launch and
docking of the vehicle carrying the first resident crew to live
aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Throughout the week and weekend, NASA TV will broadcast footage
of the crew's pre-launch preparations at Baikonur and other
locations on the NASA TV Video File at noon Eastern time.
On the day before launch, October 30, NASA TV will replay the
crew's final pre-launch news conference from the cosmonaut crew
quarters at Baikonur at 5 a.m. EST, with subsequent replays at 8
a.m. and 10 a.m.

Launch coverage on October 31 will begin at 2 a.m. EST, anchored
from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside
Moscow, and the ISS Flight Control Room at NASA's Johnson Space
Center, Houston, TX.

A post-launch news conference at the Russian Mission Control
Center will be conducted about 90 minutes after liftoff, with
questions taken only from reporters in Korolev. Coverage will
continue with periodic commentary and mission updates throughout
the two days of the Expedition One crew's free flight to the
station.

Live coverage of docking to the ISS Zvezda Service Module will
begin about thirty minutes before the Soyuz linkup. The docking
time on November 2 is expected to be around 4:20 a.m. EST. A
black-and-white camera on the Soyuz should provide live TV of the
docking itself. Approximately 90 minutes after docking, the
Expedition One crew will open the hatch to Zvezda, but no live TV
will be available. A video replay of the historic hatch opening
may be provided by the crew on subsequent orbits through Russian
ground stations.

Once the Expedition crewmembers arrive on the station, commentary
will continue through the duration of their stay on orbit, some
of which will appear on NASA TV. The primary method for
distributing mission commentary will be through the human space
flight website at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

<http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/> Air-to-ground conversations between
the crewmembers and flight controllers in Houston and Korolev will
be distributed in real time on Mission Audio circuits and as streaming
audio on the human space flight website.

Television will be sporadic during the course of the Expedition
One mission, transmitted through either Russian ground stations
periodically or by a slow-scan video system available through the
ISS early S-band communications system.

The crew is scheduled to return to Earth on the STS-102 mission
to the ISS, scheduled for launch in February 2001 to bring the
Expedition Two crew to the station.