Kyle Herring
Headquarters, Washington                      Oct. 26, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-4505)

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

NOTE TO EDITORS: N01-60

NASA TV COVERS SOYUZ TAXI CREW 
DEPARTURE FROM ISS OCT. 30

     NASA Television will provide commentary and coverage 
beginning at 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 30, of the 
departure of the Russia-based crew that delivered a new Soyuz 
spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Russian "taxi" crew Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight 
Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and European Space Agency Flight 
Engineer Claudie Haignere are scheduled to undock from the 
space station at 8:41 p.m. EST after spending eight days 
conducting joint activities with the Expedition Three crew.

NASA TV plans to carry live television from the Soyuz as it 
leaves the station. The final farewell between the two crews, 
including hatch closure, also may be available about 
5:30 p.m. EST.

The taxi crew was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 
Kazakhstan on Oct. 21 and docked to the orbiting platform two 
days later, delivering a new Soyuz spacecraft for use by the 
Expedition Three Crew, made up of American Commander Frank 
Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer 
Mikhail Tyurin. 

Afansayev, Kozeev and Haignere will land in Kazakhstan 
several hours after undocking. They'll return in the Soyuz 
delivered to the space station in April. There will be no 
NASA TV coverage of the landing.

NASA TV 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-