Three Hams Venture to ISS Next Week

All six crew members on Expedition 31 are 

radio amateurs! From left to right (front row): 

Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, RN3DT,

 and Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX. 

Back row: NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, KE5DAR,

 Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin, RN3BS,

 European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, PI9ISS,

 and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT. 

[Photo courtesy of NASA]

NASA will televise the launch and docking of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for May 14. NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, KE5DAR, and his two Russian crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, RN3BS, are completing their training as they undergo Soyuz spacecraft fit. Live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan begins at 9 PM CDT on Monday, May 14 (0200 UTC May 15), with the launch scheduled for 10:01 PM CDT (0301 UTC).

The trio will arrive at the station May 16, joining Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, of NASA and Flight Engineer Andrei Kuipers, PI9ISS, of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard the ISS since December 2011. Padalka, Acaba and Revin will transition to the Expedition 32 crew in July and return to Earth in mid-September. You can watch live online on the NASA TV Public and Media channels, or on your television set. Contact your local provider for the NASA TV channel in your area. Click here for a complete schedule of televised events.

Article from ARRL.org