NASA TV

Last updated

NASA TV
NASA TV.svg
NASA TV logo
CountryUnited States
Broadcast areaNorth America, Europe, Middle East, Africa [1] (television)
Worldwide (online)
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format 4K (UHDTV)
720p (HDTV)
480i (SDTV)
Ownership
Owner NASA
History
Launched1980
Former namesNASA Select
Links
Website NASA TV
Availability
Streaming media
Ustream
YouTube Live streams playlist

NASA TV (originally NASA Select) is the television service of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It is broadcast by satellite with a simulcast over the Internet. Local cable television providers across the United States and amateur television repeaters may carry NASA TV at their own discretion, as NASA-created content is considered a work of the U.S. government and is within the public domain. NASA TV is also available via various cable, satellite, and over-the-top media services worldwide. The network was formally created in the early 1980s to provide NASA managers and engineers with real-time video of missions. [2] [3] NASA has operated a television service since the beginning of the space program for archival purposes, and to provide media outlets with video footage. [4]

Contents

The network airs a large amount of educational programming and provides live coverage of an array of crewed missions (including the International Space Station), robotic missions, and domestic and international launches. The network completed its conversion from analog to digital transmission in late 2005 following the launch of STS-114, ending a period of dual analog and digital broadcasting. However, some cable television systems may still have transmitted in analog before the U.S. digital television transition. The satellite link uses the DVB-S system for transmission.

Channels

NASA TV broadcasting truck NASA TV truck.JPG
NASA TV broadcasting truck

NASA TV operates three channels. The "Public Channel" provides 24-hour broadcasting of live and recorded events and documentaries aimed toward the general public, as well as space and science programming for schools, museums, and other educational institutions. The "Media Channel" is dedicated to broadcast news organizations and other members of the press, featuring press release video, interviews, mission press conferences and other services. The final is the "NASA TV UHD", an experimental ultra-high-definition television channel created through a Space Act Agreement with Harmonic Inc., featuring content from NASA's archives that takes advantage of the large format, with a musical audio track. [5] [6] A high definition simulcast feed of the "Public Channel" was launched on July 19, 2010. [7] The "Education Channel" was discontinued in 2016, with its programming merged into the main Public Channel. The NASA TV website also provides a channel featuring continuous live footage from inside and outside the ISS, established to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the station in orbit. [8]

While NASA distributes NASA TV in high definition, some redistributors, such as Dish Network and DirecTV, downconvert to standard definition before delivering to their customers. [9] [10]

Programming

NASA TV carries various regularly scheduled, pre-recorded educational and public relations programming 24 hours a day on its various channels. Programs include NASA Gallery, which features photographs and video from NASA's history; Video File, which broadcasts b-roll footage for news and media outlets; Education File, which provides special programming for schools; This Week @ NASA, which shows news from NASA centers around the country; and NASA Edge and NASA 360 , hosted programs that focus on various projects and activities within NASA. Live ISS coverage and related commentary is aired in hour-long segments throughout the day. [11]

The network also provides an array of live programming, such as ISS events (spacewalks, media interviews, educational broadcasts), press conferences and rocket launches. These often include running commentary by members of the NASA Public Affairs Office who serve as the "voice of Mission Control", including Rob Navias, Nicole Cloutier, Brandi Dean, and formerly, Josh Byerly and the retired George Diller.

Past issues with Canada's broadcasting authority

Before 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) prohibited NASA TV from being aired by local satellite and cable providers within Canada, except for specific broadcast events. Under existing CRTC rules, a cable or satellite provider had to offer a minimum amount of Canadian content from domestic Canadian companies, and the only involvement the equivalent Canadian Space Agency had with space missions involved shared American space shuttle missions at the time, along with the Canadarms. Additionally, CRTC stated in September 2000 that there simply was not enough room left under the analog television frequency allocation plan, and standards for dealing with foreign digital television signals had not been finalized. [12] On April 20, 2007, the Commission issued a notice stating that after receiving an initial request from Mountain Cablevision and support from other Canadian broadcasters and members of the public, NASA TV had been added to the list of foreign television channels available in Canada. [13]

Broadcast partnerships

NASA TV broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010. NASA TV Orion Pad Abort 1 White Sands Missile Range.jpg
NASA TV broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010.

NASA has used external companies to provide streaming services for online viewers, both embedded into NASA's website and through streams branded by those companies. The variety of stream formats used have varied with the available technology and with the popularity of formats, including RealMedia, QuickTime, Windows Media, Flash Video and H.264.

In July 2005, NASA entered into an agreement with Yahoo! and Akamai Technologies to provide streaming services for NASA TV ahead of the STS-114 mission and associated Return to Flight program after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. [14] As of 2011, NASA has entered agreements with Ustream to provide high definition streaming of NASA TV and high definition cameras aboard the International Space Station, along with mission audio. Archives of press conferences, NASA Social events, and other events are also made available via UStream. [15] Other NASA TV programs and events are archived via the NASA TV YouTube channel.

In July 2023, NASA announced that it would form a new streaming platform known as NASA+, accessible via the agency's mobile apps and apps for digital media player platforms such as Apple TV and Roku. [16]

Broadcast television affiliates

As NASA TV is a service of the federal government of the United States, its programming is considered in the public domain for any organization or person to use as they see fit; for instance the paid programming network LifehacksDRTV and WMGM-TV uses NASA TV's educational blocks to fulfill their FCC E/I requirements for their individual station or network affiliates. A list of known rebroadcasters is available on the website RabbitEars. [17]

Awards

In 2009, NASA TV received two Emmy Awards. On January 24, the Midsouth Chapter of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded NASA TV and the Marshall Space Flight Center with the Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of NASA's 50th anniversary. [18] On August 22, NASA TV was awarded a national Primetime Emmy Award, the Philo T. Farnsworth Award, for engineering excellence in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's first television broadcast from the surface of the Moon. [4] [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrestrial television</span> Television content transmitted via signals in the air

Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an antenna. The term terrestrial is more common in Europe and Latin America, while in Canada and the United States it is called over-the-air or simply broadcast. This type of TV broadcast is distinguished from newer technologies, such as satellite television, in which the signal is transmitted to the receiver from an overhead satellite; cable television, in which the signal is carried to the receiver through a cable; and Internet Protocol television, in which the signal is received over an Internet stream or on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol. Terrestrial television stations broadcast on television channels with frequencies between about 52 and 600 MHz in the VHF and UHF bands. Since radio waves in these bands travel by line of sight, reception is generally limited by the visual horizon to distances of 64–97 kilometres (40–60 mi), although under better conditions and with tropospheric ducting, signals can sometimes be received hundreds of kilometers distant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATSC standards</span> Standards for digital television in the US

Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that standard, is used mostly in the United States, Mexico, Canada, South Korea and Trinidad & Tobago. Several former NTSC users, such as Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition, because they adopted other systems such as ISDB developed by Japan, and DVB developed in Europe, for example.

Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services.

Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communications satellites: Anik G1 at 107.3°W, and Anik F2 at 111.1°W. Anik F1R, which had been in service for 15 years, reached its end of life in the latter part of 2020, when the services on this satellite were migrated between the remaining two. These satellites are owned by Telesat Canada and otherwise are used primarily to distribute programming to various Canadian cable TV companies. The company was formerly known as Star Choice until April 15, 2009.

TVO, formerly known as TVOntario, is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CICA-DT in Toronto, which also relays programming across portions of Ontario through eight rebroadcast stations. All pay television providers throughout Ontario are required to carry TVO on their basic tier, and programming can be streamed for free online within Canada.

In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super Écran</span> Canadian French-language premium TV network

Super Écran is a Canadian premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of original series and programs from HBO and Showtime in the United States.

Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as television shows and films, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Protocol television</span> Television transmitted over a computer network

Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the content almost immediately. This is known as streaming media.

CBC Television is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-language counterpart is ICI Radio-Canada Télé.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citytv Saskatchewan</span> Television channel in Saskatchewan, Canada

Citytv Saskatchewan is a Canadian English language cable television channel in the province of Saskatchewan. Headquartered in the provincial capital of Regina, the channel is owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications and operates as a de facto owned-and-operated station of its Citytv television network. Its studios are shared with CBC's Regina studios on 2440 Broad Street in Downtown Regina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movie Central</span> Former Canadian premium TV channel

Movie Central was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Movie Central was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories. Although the channel's name implies that it focuses solely on theatrically released motion pictures, Movie Central's programming included original and foreign television series, made-for-cable movies and documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SES S.A.</span> Communications satellite owner and operator

SES S.A. is a Luxembourgish satellite telecommunications network provider supplying video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions.

In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual program stream, and multiplexing to combine them into a single signal. The practice is sometimes called "multicasting".

CBC Parliamentary Television Network was a Canadian cable television specialty channel that broadcast the House of Commons of Canada proceedings via Anik satellite to Canadian cable television headends between September 1979 and 1992.

Starz is a Canadian English language premium television network owned by Bell Media.

Digital television in the United States is available via digital terrestrial television (DTT), digital cable, satellite television, and IPTV providers.

An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms—the mediums through which companies have traditionally acted as controllers or distributors of such content. It has also been used to describe no-carrier cellphones, for which all communications are charged as data, avoiding monopolistic competition, or apps for phones that transmit data in this manner, including both those that replace other call methods and those that update software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultra-high-definition television</span> Television formats beyond HDTV

Ultra-high-definition television today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories and later defined and approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Stingray Naturescape is a Canadian-based specialty television channel owned by Stingray Group. The channel primarily broadcasts a rotation of various nature scenery videos with accompanying audio from the nature scene pictured with sometimes non-verbal music added to create a "soothing" atmosphere. During the Christmas and holiday season, the channel will broadcast videos of a crackling fireplace during portions of the day, primarily evening, night, and early morning hours. The channel will also broadcast the fireplace, without music, every day of the year from 6:00pm–11:00pm.

References

  1. ↑ Ecuer, Marie-Sophie (April 12, 2018). "NASA TV HD and NASA TV UHD distributed on Eutelsat satellites" (Press release). Eutelsat. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ McAuliffe, Tom Patrick (September 2007). "The Video Horizon". Digital Content Producer. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
  3. ↑ Heimberger, Mike (July 12, 2005). "NASA Digital Conversion Information". NASADigitalTV.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Smith, Yvette (August 20, 2009). "NASA Television Receives Philo T. Farnsworth Primetime Emmy Award". NASA.gov. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
  5. ↑ "NASA TV UHD Channel Access Information" (PDF). NASA/Harmonic. April 11, 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
  6. ↑ Dunbar, Brian (July 15, 2010). "Digital NASA TV". NASA.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  7. ↑ "NASA Television Debuts Full-Time High Definition Channel" (Press release). PR Newswire. July 15, 2010. Archived from the original on December 26, 2010. Retrieved July 16, 2010– via HDTV Magazine.
  8. ↑ Wilson, Jim (January 29, 2010). "Live Space Station Video". NASA.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Channel Guide" (PDF). Dish Network. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Channel Lineup" (PDF). DirecTV. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
  11. ↑ Wilson, Jim (April 6, 2010). "NASA TV Schedule". NASA.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  12. ↑ Anderson, Stephen (September 20, 2000). "NASA TV: Banned In Canada?". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2001.
  13. ↑ Secretary General (April 20, 2007). "Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2007-43" (PDF). Ottawa: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
  14. ↑ Dunbar, Brian; Mirelson, Doc (July 12, 2005). "NASA Signs With Yahoo! and Akamai To Bring Shuttle Mission Online". NASA.gov. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Amendment to Ustream.tv's Terms of Service Applicable to Government Users/Members" (PDF). Webcontent.gov. September 25, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 4, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  16. ↑ Malik, Aisha (July 28, 2023). "NASA is launching its own streaming service later this year". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  17. ↑ "Stations for Network - NASA". RabbitEars. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  18. ↑ Cabbage, Michael; Storey, Angela (January 22, 2009). "NASA Television Honored by Midsouth Emmy Chapter". NASA.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  19. ↑ "NASA Wins Emmy for Apollo 11 Moon Broadcast". Space.com. August 20, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.