NASA Television will air the docking of the newest Russian module to the International Space Station starting at 9 a.m. CST Nov. 12.

The Mini Research Module-2, known as "Poisk," which means "explore" in Russian, will deliver 1,800 pounds of cargo to the station. Poisk is scheduled to automatically dock to the station's Zvezda Service Module at 9:44 a.m.

The 8-ton module is scheduled to launch at 8:22 a.m. Nov. 10 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The combination docking port and airlock will ride atop a Soyuz booster rocket. The Soyuz launch will not be broadcast on NASA TV.

The module will be used as an additional docking port for Russian vehicles, as an airlock for Russian-based spacewalks and as a platform for external science experiments. Its first use will be as a docking port during the relocation of a Soyuz crew vehicle in January.

A companion module, the Mini Research Module-1, will be carried to orbit on space shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 mission, targeted to launch in May 2010. That module will be robotically attached to the station's Zarya module.

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