Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2006)
-- NASA next week will go where no camera has gone
before. No live High-Definition TV camera, that is.
The space agency will make history on November 15 with the first live HDTV broadcast from space. Discovery HD Theater and the Japanese network NHK will air the event live at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The broadcast will feature Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria on the International Space Station, with Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter serving as camera operator aboard the 220-mile-high laboratory.
Discovery HD Theater, which is available on cable and satellite, will also show the broadcast at Discovery Channel stores.
"HDTV provides up to six times the resolution of regular analog video," says Rodney Grubbs, NASA's principal investigator. "On previous missions, we've flown HDTV cameras but had to wait until after the mission to retrieve the tapes, watch the video and share it with the science and engineering community, the media and the public. For the first time ever, this test lets us stream live HDTV from space so the public can experience what its like to be there."
NASA says the high-def signals will also help scientists and engineers get a better look at the space station and space itself.
The equipment to record and downlink HDTV signals was delivered to the station by the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew in September. It includes a commercially manufactured camcorder, viewfinder, lenses and power cables, an HDTV signal decoder, processor and hard drive, and power and data cables.
The space agency will make history on November 15 with the first live HDTV broadcast from space. Discovery HD Theater and the Japanese network NHK will air the event live at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The broadcast will feature Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria on the International Space Station, with Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter serving as camera operator aboard the 220-mile-high laboratory.
Discovery HD Theater, which is available on cable and satellite, will also show the broadcast at Discovery Channel stores.
"HDTV provides up to six times the resolution of regular analog video," says Rodney Grubbs, NASA's principal investigator. "On previous missions, we've flown HDTV cameras but had to wait until after the mission to retrieve the tapes, watch the video and share it with the science and engineering community, the media and the public. For the first time ever, this test lets us stream live HDTV from space so the public can experience what its like to be there."
NASA says the high-def signals will also help scientists and engineers get a better look at the space station and space itself.
The equipment to record and downlink HDTV signals was delivered to the station by the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew in September. It includes a commercially manufactured camcorder, viewfinder, lenses and power cables, an HDTV signal decoder, processor and hard drive, and power and data cables.