I just returned from the Cape. I was covering the STS-119 launch, with Miles O'Brien and David Waters. We were trying something completely new, streaming in real time from the Kennedy Space Center, through the web site: www.spaceflightnow.com.
What a neat experiment this was! With a few technical difficulties (which we hope to have worked out for the next time), we had an amazingly successful test of the system. We were receiving real time twitter and chat messages, which enabled us to respond to viewer questions and to get feedback. All of the feedback was very positive, it was clear that we were reaching people who were thirsting for this kind of coverage! We were reaching people all over the world, including places like Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Nigeria, just to mention a few.
This is clearly the future. We had a blast, our overhead was minimal (just a fraction of what a network would spend for television coverage) and we had real time interaction with our audience. We reached tens of thousands of people and hope to reach even more as this matures!
Leroy Chiao
1 comment:
Leroy,
It was wonderful to see. A good first step. As someone who works in TV, I would love to be part of it...if nothing else to re-block the cameras for better shots (some people are never happy).
I was thrilled that space reporting is finding a home.
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