LAUNCH OF RUSSIA’S PROGRESS MS-08, Feb. 13, 2018, Baikonur, Kazakhstan, 3:13 am ET (NASA TV begins 2:45 am ET)

Update, February 12:  The Roscosmos livestream website (http://online.roscosmos.ru/) shows that the launch is rescheduled for February 13 at 11:13 Moscow Time (which is 3:13 am Eastern Standard Time).  Roscosmos will broadcast the launch on that website and it also will be carried on NASA TV (www.nasa.gov/ntv).

Because of the changed orbital positions of the ISS and the launch site, the spacecraft must use a 34-orbit (instead of 2.5 orbit) rendezvous trajectory to the ISS.  Docking is scheduled for February 15 at 5:43 am ET.  NASA TV will provide coverage beginning at 5:00 am ET.

Update, February 11:  The launch was scrubbed seconds before liftoff.  Although the cause is not yet known, it *appears* similar to a problem on October 12, 2017 with the launch of Progress MS-07 when the second of two umbilicals that must retract from the rocket just before launch did not do so.   In that case, the Russians successfully launched two days later, but the delay meant they were unable to use a new super fast trajectory to get to ISS because the orbital positions of the ISS and the launch site had changed.  They were planning to use that new trajectory for this launch, but obviously will not be able to do so.  Roscosmos said in tweet that it will try again on February 13, but it is still investigating the incident, so that is tentative.

Original entry:

NASA TV will broadcast the launch and docking of Russia’s Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on February 11, 2018.  NASA refers to this as Progress 69.

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for 3:58 am Eastern Standard Time (2:58 pm local time at the launch site).  NASA TV coverage begins at 3:30 am ET.

Docking at ISS is scheduled for 7:24 am  EST.  NASA TV coverage begins 6:30 am ET.