But beyond that, the stations U.S. television system remains out of service in the wake of serious outpost computer failures this week. And spacewalking astronauts removed an antenna that had been beaming back sequential still video and digital camera pictures from the outpost.
Here, however, is what NASA TV viewers can expect to see during broadcast coverage that will be carried live on SPACE.com:
- Titos arrival at the station. Television from Russian ground stations is expected to be broadcast live on NASA TV between about 3:45 a.m. EDT and 4:10 a.m. EDT (07:45 GMT and 08:10 GMT).
- Look for live coverage of the planned 3:52 a.m. EDT (07:52 GMT) docking Monday of the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Tito and his two cosmonaut crewmates Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.
- Titos entrance into the outpost. Hatches separating the Soyuz and the station will swing open about 5:22 a.m. EDT (09:22 GMT) Monday, or about 90 minutes after docking.
Television from Russian ground stations is expected to be broadcast live on NASA TV beginning at about 5:20 a.m. EDT (09:20 GMT) Monday.
Docking and hatch-opening coverage is standard fare for NASA TV and falls within the "normal operational activities" criteria established by the agency as part of its public affairs plan for the Soyuz flight.
NASA officials say that subsequent TV coverage will be in the hands of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (also known as Rosaviakosmos).
"Tito is flying to the International Space Station as a paying, commercial passenger who has signed a contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency," the U.S. space agency said in a "note to editors" distributed to various media outlets.
"NASA and its international partners have not been asked to participate in this commercial venture, nor have they contracted to provide any additional public affairs services during this flight," the note said.
"Due to the commercial nature of this mission, NASAs coverage of the Soyuz 2 crews activities will be limited to normal operational activities onboard the station."
As it turns out, even if Rosaviakosmos had contracted with NASA for coverage above and beyond the norm, the U.S. space agency would have trouble fulfilling any such pact.
NASAs so-called Ku-band television system was knocked off line when the stations three main U.S. command-and-control computers inexplicably failed earlier this week.
Consequently, only an air-to-ground radio link now is available from U.S. segments of the station. Exactly when the U.S. TV system will be brought back on line remains unclear.
This much, however, is certain: Engineers still havent figured out the root cause of the computer failures, so a cautious approach is being taken to reinitiating the Ku-band system to avoid crashing the computers again.
Meanwhile, NASAs ability to beam back sequential still video and electronic still camera pictures from the station is not available either.
Spacewalking astronauts earlier this week took down the stations so-called Early Communications System antenna, which up until now provided NASA with a means of carrying out videoconferences with outpost crews. Digital photos shot onboard the station also were routed back to Earth through the antenna.
Ferried into orbit in late 1998, the antenna blocked the station berthing port to which an airlock will be mounted during NASAs next outpost construction mission in June.
Ironically, the capabilities provided by the antenna were picked up by the more capable Ku-band television system, the essential parts of which were delivered to the station by visiting shuttle crews in February and March.
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