[sarex] First Live HDTV Broadcast From Space

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*First Live HDTV Broadcast From Space*

The first live HDTV broadcast from space took place Wednesday. It 
featured Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight 
Engineer Thomas Reiter, serving as camera operator. The broadcast was 
carried by Discovery HD Theater and NHK and was also shown at Discovery 
Channel stores. 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.


More testing of one of the station's four control moment gyros (CMG-3) 
took place Wednesday. Engineers repeated some of the CMG-3 testing that 
was performed earlier. The results will be compared to a previous test 
and provide additional data on the state of the accelerometer, lubricant 
and lubrication of the spin bearings. CMG-3 is scheduled to be removed 
and replaced on shuttle mission STS-118 next summer. The suspect CMG 
will be stowed on an external stowage platform on the station and will 
be returned to Earth on the STS-122 mission next fall.

The Expedition 14 crew continues spacewalk preparations. The Nov. 22 
spacewalk includes a commercial golf experiment performed by Flight 
Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. This experiment is dedicated to the 200th 
anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between Russia and the 
United States and to commemorate the golf shot of Alan Shepard Jr. on 
the moon.

+ Read more about Expedition 14 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html>
+ View crew's daily timelines 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html>

NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have named two astronauts and 
two cosmonauts to the next International Space Station crew, known as 
Expedition 15. Astronauts Clayton Anderson and Daniel Tani will travel 
to the station next year and work as flight engineers. Cosmonauts Fyodor 
Yurchikhin and Dr. Oleg Kotov will spend six months aboard the orbiting 
laboratory.

+ Read more about Expedition 15 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html>
+ Read the press release 
<http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/oct/HQ_06337_new_station_crew.html>