It's been awhile


Hello NASA 360 fans. A brief update on our new season coming up; our crew is heading to Denver, Colorado to film with Lockheed Martin. We’re putting a program together on planetary exploration. After Denver we’re off to Flagstaff Arizona to film with Desert Rats. DRATS was a successful program last year and we’ve been invited back. Look for Twit pics from the field next week.

Our new program on composite materials is complete. Look for it soon on NASA.gov/nasa360. Stories on the CCM or Composite Crew Module, shell buckling and a story on Edison 2 round out the program. The Edison 2 team is designing and building a composite car for the X-Prize competition. We have a clip and pictures on our Facebook page. 

Thanks to everyone who enjoys watching our programs. It’s been a very successful 2 years of premiere programming.Have a great weekend!

Future of Aeronautics

It’s been awhile since we’ve posted a blog. What a long winter it’s been. Our team is happy to have our current program on line this month. We had a great time producing this one. After a trip to Dryden filming with Johnny Alonso and Fay Collier’s X48B team, we headed back to Langley to film in the Full Scale Tunnel with Jennifer. We were the last film crew to shoot in this historic facility. Plans are already underway to remove this great landmark. When we arrived for a site survey we found electricity to be an issue. After working with the facility manager we restored power for lights, but not heat. It was cold that morning! Tom, our B camera operator had to walk in socks because of the noise produced by his sneakers while we were rolling cameras. Jennifer was shaking between takes.
Our camera was mounted on a large jib that morning. We tried to capture just how massive this tunnel really is. The platform is about 20 feet above the floor, and the top of the tunnel is 30 feet higher. It truly is a magnificent building. You can see some pictures on our Webshots page.
Another part of the program was shot at Newport News International Airport with Anna McGowen. Tom, Kevin, and Johnny spent an afternoon on the tarmac filming the interview and gathering some footage for the program.
Our friend Gary Banziger, who films for NASA Langley Public Affairs, shot some great footage for us at the gantry. An MD500 helicopter was dropped to test a new airbag system. We had some cool slo-mo footage provided to us as well. It was a long edit session to get all this footage together. Thanks to everyone who helped us with this endeavor. Enjoy the program, we had a blast producing this one.

Desert Rats

Our crew was excited as we left Flagstaff the morning of Sept. 12th. After a quick breakfast we headed to Black Point Lava Flow where NASA’s Desert Rats program was testing the LER, or Lunar Electric Rover. Tri-ATHLETE was also there, drilling in the side of a crater and moving around the desert very slowly. It was a beautiful day for filming. Johnny Alonso had his lines down and we shot some stand-ups around the LER and Tri-ATHLETE. With some time left in the day, we headed North to the Grand Canyon’s south rim. Our crew enjoyed the views while Tom shot some 3D footage for NASA. Johnny shot some promo’s and bumps for 360. What a view!

 LER   Johnny wrapping a shot     

Day 2 consisted of rain, lots of it. We fit some filming in between and got what we needed. We interviewed astronaut Mike Gernhardt and geologist Brent Garry through the com-link while they sat in the LER. After lunch, which consisted of Pop Tarts and beef jerky, we did some Facebooking and Tweeting while inside the Media vault. With storm clouds looming, the LER pulled up to home base for the last time. Hard rain forced it in the tent as Mike and Brent emerged after a 2 week stint inside.  As Mike jumped off the LER, Johnny was the first to give him a high five and congratulations. (We’ll post a clip on the NASA 360 facebook page.) After the LER was cleaned and photo’s taken, Johnny and camerman Mike Bibbo went inside to interview astronaut Mike Gernhardt. Johnny sat on the right, with Mike on the left. It was fantastic, what a thrill. Mike said he would do it all over again and hopes to drive the LER on the Moon one day. A big thanks to Mike for the interview, and to the entire Desert Rats team for allowing us to join them for this historic event. Look for the show coming up in a month or so. Check out more photos of the shoot at 

www.webshots.com/user/nasa360

 Mike Gernhardt, Johnny Alonso  

NASA 360 heads to NASA Dryden

Our crew just retuned from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. We had a successful shoot with the folks from the X-48 team. We arrived early in the morning and filmed the sunrise over the mountains. Tom set up the camera on the truck while X-48 team members walked below to the building. We joined the team for morning meeting and soon headed out to the field closely following the X-48 scale model in tow. The lake bed was vast and beautiful. The ground cracked slightly and had a fine powder on top. While the crew set up the model for flight, we filmed from every angle and took in the beauty surrounding us. With the wind kicking up we had a feeling the flight might be scrubbed. 30 minutes later we were heading back, flight cancelled. But we had a great day, filming around the center with Johnny was fun. No lack of background shots – planes were everywhere, thanks to Dryden for helping us out. Look for this show in a few months. Next stop, “Desert Rats” in Arizona. See you then.

On the lake bed – X-48 in the background
747 Shuttle carrier

 

30- by 60-Foot Wind Tunnel testing

Last Friday we filmed in the historic 30- by 60-Foot Wind Tunnel at Langley Research Center. We were getting some shots of the new X-48 BWB, or Blended Wing Body. The footage will be used for an upcoming NASA 360 program on Green technologies. Engineers lifted the scale model on to the stage in preparation for low speed wind testing. It was only about 110 degrees in the non-air conditioned facility. I’m glad everything was in focus while sweat was dripping on to the lens.
For some cool info on the Full Scale Tunnel go to :
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/30X60.html

NASA 360 wins Emmy Award!

Michael Bibbo and Kevin Krigsvold

It was the 51st Annual Capital Region Emmy Awards. NASA 360 won the Emmy for Editing in a Non-News televised program. Both our hosts attended the ceremony. Over 600 entries were submitted with 169 nominations and only 77 winners. The Ritz-Carlton hotel was buzzing when Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance to celebrate a lifetime achievement award with a former co-worker.  Johnny and Jen celebrated with the crew into the early morning hours. We had a blast. We love producing this program, stay tuned for more next month.

For more pictures go to:

http://community.webshots.com/user/NASA360

Oprah Winfrey                                                        Jennifer Pulley and Johnny Alonso

 

Check out our new program!

The NASA 360 crew went down to Kennedy Space Center and filmed aboard the “Crawler.” This megatruck weighs over 6 million pounds and carries the Space Shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to one of the launchpads.

We also filmed how Shuttle tiles are created from a slurry mix to a solid brick, ready for installation. And finally, we witnessed first hand how NASA packs and creates parachutes for Earth and Space missions.

Head over to our 360 page and download the program. Let us know what you think, and enjoy the show!


NASA 360 crew

NASA 360 heads to Hawaii!!!

Check out our latest show!

In episode 8, NASA 360 learns how lunar soil can be turned into breathable oxygen and drinkable water, and we visit some of the world’s most amazing observatories at the top of the world. We also discover how NASA is helping us monitor volcanoes all over the world…

We were able to film in front of an active volcano in Volcanoes National Park, and we filmed in a lava tube 30 feet below ground. It was a lot of fun, and our crew met some fantastic people on the big island. Thanks to everyone who made this adventure possible.

 

Mike – Co Producer