Nasa tv???

**Wad Cutter** · #1 05-01-2013, 12:17 PM

Some time ago I asked a question if NASA would ever have a live TV broadcast where it would be possible to just watch the Earth rolling by and you could watch this any time you wanted. So I went looking and I guess the answer is no, not yet. Seems odd to me that when the USA has down sized there flight and all we have is the SST, wouldn't this be the way to get some sort of support. I don't need the class rom or other speeches, I just want to watch the Earth from the SST and I would be willing to pay for it. At times when there is nothing to watch and you just want something in the back ground to watch. I think this would be great. Or maybe not. Any one know? Thanks for you input. wc

**VinceM** · #2 05-01-2013, 02:47 PM

Dish Network has a channel that watches the earth from one of it's satellites. It's called Dish Earth. It's OK for a few minutes but after that it gets pretty boring. I think the satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit because the scene never changes! It's like staring at a still photo set to Musak.

**Dlazarus6660** · #3 05-01-2013, 03:14 PM

I do the ISS tracker. I watch for hours.

ISSTracker ~ Real-Time Location Tracking of the International Space Station

**3Turner** · #4 05-01-2013, 04:36 PM

I've seen the Dish Network channel, Dish Earth....and I second Vince's comment....it does get boring to watch the same angle each time.

**cwiokster** · #5 05-01-2013, 06:19 PM

while this may not be available on the nasa tv channel, the afiliated web
site NASA - Home does have such a service. go to the nasa.tv page,
and look for the side bar "viewing options". At the bottom is ustream.
Also check out the 'about this channel' for an explanation as to why
this is not a 24/7 view.

direct link: NASA - International Space Station on UStream

regards
Jeff Cwiok

**VinceM** · #6 05-01-2013, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3Turner

I've seen the Dish Network channel, Dish Earth....and I second Vince's comment....it does get boring to watch the same angle each time.

Well, I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time...before the satellite and TV channel were actually launched.

**luke strawwalker** · #7 05-02-2013, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VinceM

Dish Network has a channel that watches the earth from one of it's satellites. It's called Dish Earth. It's OK for a few minutes but after that it gets pretty boring. I think the satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit because the scene never changes! It's like staring at a still photo set to Musak.

Yes, TV comsats are in geosynchronous orbit... if they weren't, your dish would have to track it across the sky! From Geosynch orbit, your dish is pointed at it and focused in on the signal, and tightende down, and then voila...

I used to enjoy playing around with the J-Track 3D java program... that was cool... I see it's not around anymore-- pity... it was fun to zoom out and see the "ring" of geosynch comsats around earth, and the weird orbits of the GPS sats and highly elliptical orbits like Chandra...

If someone wants to see views from the station, usually NASA TV has an hour or so of coverage from ISS (what is SST?? SuperSonic Transport, which was a canceled project from the early 70's that ran basically concurrently with shuttle before it went away?) Many times they'll switch to an exterior view from a camera on the station...

They really should do more of that, as you said... although as someone else pointed out, it gets pretty boring after awhile... still, better than the "astronaut propaganda" statements they have them reading from orbit all the time, or showing them floating in front of some random experiment for long periods of time with NOTHING interesting to see going on, or worse yet, showing video feeds of bored-looking controllers sitting at their consoles in Houston in ISS Control staring at their computer screens or idly conversing with each other over some point of minutea... Someone said one time how boring NASA TV was, watching bored controllers picking their nose...

I wouldn't quite go THAT far, but NASA COULD certainly do a better job of covering things and making it more interesting...

Later! OL JR

**SCEtoAUX** · #8 05-03-2013, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke strawwalker

I used to enjoy playing around with the J-Track 3D java program... that was cool... I see it's not around anymore-- pity... it was fun to zoom out and see the "ring" of geosynch comsats around earth, and the weird orbits of the GPS sats and highly elliptical orbits like Chandra...
Later! OL JR

It looks like the address has changed for the J-Track 3D site. I found it again here:
J-Track 3D Satellite Tracking - NASA Science