SAN JOSE, CALIF.—NASA TV has allowed viewers to explore outer space, now Harmonic is providing the chance for them to discover just how the noncommercial UHD channel came to be. Harmonic has released a short documentary that profiles the making of NASA TV.

Images from NASA TV UHD taken from the International Space Station

The documentary provides a look at the technical challenges NASA and Harmonic encountered and overcame to put NASA TV UHD on one satellite link along with NASA’s existing SD and HD channels.

NASA TV provides viewers with high-resolution images and video generated from the International Space Station and other current NASA missions, as well as remastered footage from historical missions. The channel officially launched in November 2015.

The documentary is available on the Harmonic channel.

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SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Viewers can now get a UHD view of space with the launch of NASA TV UHD consumer channel. Using an end-to-end delivery system from Harmonic, NASA TV provides 2160p60 video content of NASA’s space program. NASA TV UHD is remotely produced by Harmonic and jointly operated with NASA.

NASA TV UHD's eight original series

Transmitted through the SES AMC-18C satellite, NASA TV features eight series designed to explore NASA’s space program. Among the new series are ‘ISS Life,’ which gives a first person perspective of life on the International Space Station; ‘Earth View,’ the astronauts’ perception of our planet; ‘Deep Space,’ featuring animated UHD still imagery captured from the Hubble telescope and other telescope platforms; ‘Mars’ and more.

Harmonic is currentlyin discussions with pay-TV operators to carry the channel on their DTH sattellite, cable and optical networks. Tests are underway to enable consumption on a range of TV and IP-connected devices. Harmonic also plans to make the channel available for OTT streaming at a later date.

NASA TV utilizes Harmonic’s Ellipse 3000 contribution encoder, ProView 7100 integrated receiver-decoder, MediaGrid shared storage system, Polaris playout management suite, Spectrum X advanced media server system, Electra X2 and X3 media processors, ProMedia Origin packager and streaming video server, and NSG Exo distributed CAAP system.

For more information, visit info.harmonicinc.com/nasa-uhd.