Image Above: An unpiloted Progress 26 resupply vehicle approaches the International Space Station on Aug. 5, 2007. Image credit: NASA

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ISS crew to get their Christmas goodies on Wednesday

A new Progress cargo carrier is scheduled to dock to the International Space Station's Pirs docking compartment at 3:25 a.m. EST Wednesday after a launch just after 2:10 a.m. Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The station's 27th unpiloted Progress spacecraft brings to the orbiting laboratory almost 2.5 tons of propellant, oxygen and dry cargo.

While the Expedition 16 crew members wait for the Progress, they have received more than 6,000 greetings from Earth through a link on the nasa.gov home page.

Image above: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, left, station commander Peggy Whitson and astronaut Daniel Tani get into the Christmas spirit onboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TV

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, KC5ZTD and flight engineers Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP and Dan Tani, KD5DXE will be standing by as the unpiloted ISS Progress 27 resupply craft automatically docks to the Pirs Docking Station on Wednesday, Dec. 26, at about 2:25 a.m. CST.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the arrival of a new shipment of food, fuel, supplies and holiday gifts to the International Space Station on the morning after Christmas. Coverage will begin at 2 a.m.

NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. For those in Alaska or Hawaii, NASA Television will be seen on AMC-7, at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization. In both instances, a Digital Video Broadcast (DVB)-compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder
with modulation of QPSK/DBV, data rate of 36.86 and FEC 3/4 will be needed for reception.

The NASA Television schedule is available on the NASA Television website, at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station and the Expedition 16 crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station