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| Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria,
KE5GTK, will feature in two live broadcasts |
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Watch NASA TV
Ham radio astronaut to feature in first live HDTV broadcast from space
NASA makes history this week with the first live broadcasts from space
in High Definition television (HDTV). NASA, in co-operation with the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater and Japanese broadcast
network NHK will produce the broadcasts on November 15.
Two live HDTV broadcasts will feature Expedition 14 Commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, on the International Space Station, with Flight
Engineer Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, serving as camera operator aboard the 220-mile-high
laboratory.
The broadcasts will be carried by Discovery HD Theater and NHK. Discovery
HD Theater will carry the special broadcast live at 10:30 a.m. CST and
will be shown at Discovery Channel stores.
"HDTV provides up to six times the resolution of regular analog
video," said Rodney Grubbs, NASA 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."
Known as the Space Video Gateway, the system transmits high bandwidth
digital television signals to the ground that are not only spectacular,
but also valuable to scientists, engineers and managers.
NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, along with both NHK
and Discovery, are cooperating in this effort though a Space Act Agreement
originally signed in 2002.
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.
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