December 5, 2007

 

ATLANTIS STS-122 TO LAUNCH THURSDAY DECEMBER 6, 2007

 

The time has finally arrived for Europe to set up a permanent outpost in space.

Named after one of the greatest explorers of all time, the European Columbus Laboratory  has been transferred to the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and now awaits its historical flight into orbit

Two European astronauts, Hans Schlegel and Léopold Eyharts from the European Space Agency ESA, will accompany Columbus on its voyage.

 

ARISS L/S-bands antennas have been installed on the nadir of Columbus. Onboard equipment is being developed.

 

Atlantis Shuttle is scheduled for launch Thursday December 6, 2007 at 21:31 UTC, which is 22:31 CET (Continental European Time).

 

ESA TV will provide re-broadcast of NASA TV for the following key events:

Wednesday 5 Dec 2007, 17:50 - 19:00 GMT (Sat coordinates below): Briefing from KSC with ESA and NASA mission managers on Columbus mission and 1st ATV mission.

Thursday 6 Dec 2007, 16:25 - 22:00 GMT (Sat coordinates below): Full relay of NASA TV coverage of pre-launch events and launch (scheduled at 21:31 GMT).

Monday 10 Dec 2007: Columbus module 1st ingress (scheduled at 22:06 GMT).

Wednesday 12 Dec 2007: Mission inflight call (scheduled at 14:51 GMT) with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ESA DG Jean Jacques Dordain (Eyharts and Schlegel plus mission commanders participating)

Friday 14 Dec 2007: Joint Crew News Conference (scheduled at 16:31 GMT).

Monday 17 Dec 2007: Landing (scheduled at 17:29 GMT).

Also, daily mission highlights will be re-broadcast from NASA (starting Fri 7 Dec at 06:00 GMT).

All NASA TV programming is subject to last-minute changes.


The line-up time for all these SCPC feeds will be 5 minutes

More background information can be found on: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Satellite coordinates for Wednesday 5 December and Thursday 6 December:

Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 1 (AB1) at 12.5degW, Transponder F5, Channel C, F = 12642.75MHz, Pol = horizontal,SR = 6.1113 Ms/s, FEC = 3/4, signal MPEG2 4:2:0 in the clear

For the latest transmission schedule, go to http://television.esa.int.

 

 

73

Gaston Bertels – ON4WF

ARISS-Europe chairman