Live From Space Airs Tonight
Agencywide Message to All NASA Employees: “LIVE FROM SPACE” Program on Space Station Originating from JSC
“LIVE FROM SPACE” Program on Space Station Originating from JSC — Friday, March 14, 8 p.m. EDT, National Geographic Channel. “LIVE FROM SPACE,” a live, two-hour special program originating from Johnson Space Center (JSC) and including appearances by the International Space Station (ISS) crew, is scheduled to air world-wide on the National Geographic Channel on Friday, March 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.”
Keith’s note: Unless you pay extra for National Geogrpahic Channel, you were unable to watch this NASA-assisted special tonight. NASA TV was not allowed to air it. Also, if you went to the official “Live From Space” website, it crashed a few minutes after the show began – and with it the live video feeds (without any audio). To be certain, crashing a webserver like this speaks to having a lot of interested people trying to get in. That said, its baffling that National Geographic did not plan ahead for this surge in traffic – especially when they did so much international marketing. Meanwhile, it was rather humorous to listen to the open mic in the control room at JSC in the hour leading up to the webcast as the shows’s producers struggled to figure a number of things out – and talk about the post-show party.
Too bad they couldn’t show it on a channel that more people actually get in their homes.
$150 Billion to build ISS. Its not a penthouse in space. There is research being done. There is no way it can live up to the cost to build. Can the astronauts, researchers delivering experiments and ground control justify spending $30 Billion to operate it for ten years? In previous comments I expressed support for flying til 2024. It is an uneasy feeling supporting it.
So this will be 60 minutes of Reality TV from Low Earth Orbit. I’ve imagined all the different guest show appearances the astronauts could make on TV. Or maybe they could be serenaded from the ground by David Bowie and Chris Hadfield. Or do they compress all the youtube ISS demonstrations into a 60 minute special. NASA has not been idol. They are trying to improve ROI and improve the social aspect of ISS. Lets see how they will share the work and living experience on ISS to us ground dwellers.
It only takes one eureka moment… just a single netscape moment … and the ISS pays for itself. One thing I can guarantee, we will have neither if we stay on the ground. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. The ISS is what it is and is all that we have until we get domestic space based services. In the mean time, the more minds we can put into that environment, the greater the chance we hit that moment, that one moment that changes everything. It isn’t a question of it happening, because we still have so much to learn, the only question is when will it happen.
NASA TV should be simulcasting this as well. It’s currently showing a stale re-run.
Pretty disappointing.
After all the hype I’ve been hearing for the last couple weeks, turned out I could not get NG channel on my DISH account.
I tried watching and listening on NASA TV – a couple channels, and they had only about half the audio; talked a lot about comm errors so I am not sure if that is what NG watchers were also hearing. The NASA ISS video feed had nothing to do with whatever they were describing. Mostly it was a poorly exposed image of the SSRMS.
I was lucky to watch this as I have the NatGeo channel. It’s about time they showcased the space station with this type of special program. I’m used to seeing the Space Station flip the coin for the Super Bowl or present an Oscar, etc.
But this time they did it right, they were live from Mission Control with host Soledad O’Brien(who did a fantastic job!) w/astronaut Mike Massimino. Not only did they have live interviews with the Expedition 39 crew, they even interviewed an astronaut that just got back from the space station 4 days ago, very cool.
All in all it was great to see a program that covered the ISS in such detail, while having a little fun at the same time. It was a good way to explain how the ISS works, what it’s really like to live up there(finally, in HD), and what science they’re doing and how it will affect us here on earth. At one point in the show an astronaut pulled open one of the experiment bays and a bunch of ice steam rolled out, a very sci-fi like moment lol.
It was such a good program they were the #1 on Twitter around the world and their web server crashed due to so many hits. Hopefully NASA will showcase their achievements to a wide audience a lot more often from now on. A+
BlingSlade, I agree with your assessment of the show. I was a bit cautiously optimistic that Soledad O’Brien would do a great job and she was absolutely superb. Mike Massimino is always great. There were not too many commercial interruptions, and when there were commercial breaks, it did not break the flow of the show. A thoroughly entertaining and informational program.
NASA was broadcasting a channel of audio that included the PAO cues and background discussion between ground controllers and astronauts, but they did not broadcast the astronauts answering NG questions. NASA Live TV was broadcasting a live view from ISS, but nothing associated with the NG broadcast.
Agreed. We pay for the lowest tier of digital cable and get NatGeo, but do NOT have NASA TV, even in low definition. I’d have to upgrade to an even higher tier just to get what should be free NASA TV. Stupid cable.
“First time ever”…. IT’S ABOUT TIME! I used to have NASA TV on quite a bit at college where it was actually a channel on our cable service, but not so anywhere else I’ve lived. Why not??? Charter??? Khaaaaaaaaaaaaannnn!!
Good for them for doing this! They did well to have lots of segments to jump to as needed, and a TV news reporter to do it with, and of course the obligatory twitter stuff. It was well organized for sure and they did it the way it needed to be done. Nice job to Soledad and the astronauts! Mike Massimino has a future in communication I think. And yeah that was great to have the astronaut who just returned.
I would have liked them to suggest to the public if this is cool, to check out all the other things NASA is doing now as well. Get people looking around.
P.S. There have been LOTS more animals in space than what was answered. Maybe they were tiptoeing around that question which is understandable, but the monkeys came back ok!