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Watch live from Times Square: the next space station launch

Soyuz spacecraft approaches the International Space Station
A Soyuz spacecraft approaches the International Space Station in this photo made available by NASA on Sept. 27.NASA via EPA file

Want to watch the next International Space Station launch but don’t have a (really big) big-screen TV? You might want to hop on over to New York’s Times Square.

NASA announced Friday that it will broadcast the next space station launch, scheduled for 11:14 p.m. EST Wednesday, live on the Square's giant outdoor Toshiba screen, just below the world-famous New Year's Eve Ball.

The three-person crew of NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz commander Mikhail Tyurin and Japan astronaut Koichi Wakata will launch in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The space station serves as a unique laboratory for researchers around the world, home to astronauts from multiple countries, and was built with international cooperation, so it's fitting to show the launch of the next crew in the most cosmopolitan city in the United States," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a statement.

The three crew members will join six crew members already on the space station: NASA astronauts Karen Nyberg and Mike Hopkins, the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano, and Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy.

NASA said the Times Square broadcast will begin at 10:15 p.m. and end at 11:45 p.m. 

It’s not the first time NASA has broadcast a live video event from Times Square.

On Sept. 6 crowds gathered in the Square to watch the nighttime launch of the new LADEE moon probe.

NASA also broadcast the Aug. 6, 2012, landing of the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars on the giant screen in Times Square.