Tuning Into Better Improvements

As promised in the last post, yesterday we rolled out a new NASA Television schedule page. This page shows NASA’s three television channels listed much like you’d see listings in your local newspaper with blocks of time indicating which program is on which channel. We hope this small improvement makes the online program schedule easier to read.

NASA TV Schedule Screenshot

This change also combines program information into one place instead of the old model of three different schedules depending upon whether something was regularly scheduled, a live event, or a mission event. Now the schedules for all three channels are listed on one page. Additionally, when a user hovers their mouse over the program title, they see a small window open that has either a description of the program or a link for more information. This was added in response to user feedback that more information was sometimes necessary, especially on cryptically named television programs.

Listings of upcoming programs, events and features on NASA TV’s Public, Education and Media channels now can be accessed easily in the NASA TV section.

Stay tuned for more changes coming soon to NASA.gov.

11 thoughts on “Tuning Into Better Improvements”

  1. I like this in a way. But I cant tell whats coming up in the future without clicking about a hundred times on the site. The old way was one page for all live events(Like mission updates). It was way better than what you have now. The new way is great for reoccurring events like Video file but really crappy for live events.

    Joe

  2. I love NASA TV! This website is cool too! What’s cooler than that? Butterflies in space, hehee, that’s cool!!!

  3. Thank you SO MUCH for implementing this easy-to-read (and understand!) formatting for NASA TV’s programming schedules. I never know what channel I’m watching on cable (Public? Education? Media??) and hated trying to find a program title in the multiple text files. Now, even if I don’t know exactly what feed I’m seeing, I can easily figure out what program I’m watching.

    The last step would be to link to on-demand versions of the videos–or at least a page dedicated to the show with a bit more info (including how to order the videos for teachers). While making the programming schedule readable is a big step forward, having the actual programming easily accessible online will be a huge leap.

    The point of NASA TV (and the new schedule) is to allow the public to more easily access the programs, videos, and live events produced by NASA. Having a link to streaming video (ie, YouTube) and/or a downloadable file (ie, m4V) will increase the accessibility and utilization of the wonderful NASA content catalog.

  4. I have a question about NASA TV… after launch about everything shown on the three channels has been in the nature of bios of the crew and looped highlight reels with updates about things that happened 24 hours ago.

    With STS-130 in orbit and on station to deliver Tranquility and Cupola, and with spacewalks planned… why does NASA not take the opportunity to provide “live” coverage of the mission as it takes place?

    I’m sure it is in there somewhere… with 24 hour coverage SOMETHING has to be live… but there is no way for someone at home to be able to predict when something will come on.

    When the recorded rebroadcast has audio saying things like “here’s a live look inside the ISS as astronaut Nicholas Behnken and Bob Patrick prepare their tools” it is disappointing to be teased with things that you know happened last night because you were watching then, too.

    It is the same kind of complaint I am sure I will have with Olympic coverage… NASA seems to want to recycle and package events instead of providing news coverage.

    Astronauts in orbit rise and sleep on a schedule that has little to do with “prime time” for the east or west coast, why not accept this and schedule your television broadcasts with a live feed during times when the crew can be seen at work and let us know with a crawl across the bottom of the screen when we can hope to see live coverage and when what you will be broadcasting is the looped “Mission Highlights” package?

    I support NASA and appreciate NASA-TV, I just wish that there was some sort of meaningful schedule that would tell me what I can expect to see… NASA-TV and NASAE are usually giving a single feed… but NASA-TV calls it “NASA Education File”, “ISS Mission Coverage”, “NASA Video File”, “NASA Edge”, etc…. and NASA-E simply says “Educational Access/NASA” 24/7.

    Don’t you have the entire mission managed well enough that you can know when a good “broadcast opportunity” will take place and let the rest of us know when we should watch?

    Thanks

  5. Hi Eric,

    Wanted to let you know that you can get minute by minute schedule details about Space Shuttle coverage at:

    https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/mission_schedule.html

    The schedule there is intended for news organizations to know when to tune in to live events — but during a mission we try to cover everything live that we can.

    As for NASAE — that is only one of three NASA TV channels that we operate and as a result you may not be seeing our main NASA TV public channel which has different (and much more live) coverage than our media and education channels.

    You can view all three channels online at https://www.nasa.gov/ntv

    Thanks for your comments and hope that helps.

  6. I have a question about NASA TV… after launch about everything shown on the three channels has been in the nature of bios of the crew and looped highlight reels with updates about things that happened 24 hours ago.

    With STS-130 in orbit and on station to deliver Tranquility and Cupola, and with spacewalks planned… why does NASA not take the opportunity to provide “live” coverage of the mission as it takes place?

    I’m sure it is in there somewhere… with 24 hour coverage SOMETHING has to be live… but there is no way for someone at home to be able to predict when something will come on.

    When the recorded rebroadcast has audio saying things like “here’s a live look inside the ISS as astronaut Nicholas Behnken and Bob Patrick prepare their tools” it is disappointing to be teased with things that you know happened last night because you were watching then, too.

    It is the same kind of complaint I am sure I will have with Olympic coverage… NASA seems to want to recycle and package events instead of providing news coverage.

    Astronauts in orbit rise and sleep on a schedule that has little to do with “prime time” for the east or west coast, why not accept this and schedule your television broadcasts with a live feed during times when the crew can be seen at work and let us know with a crawl across the bottom of the screen when we can hope to see live coverage and when what you will be broadcasting is the looped “Mission Highlights” package?

    I support NASA and appreciate NASA-TV, I just wish that there was some sort of meaningful schedule that would tell me what I can expect to see… NASA-TV and NASAE are usually giving a single feed… but NASA-TV calls it “NASA Education File”, “ISS Mission Coverage”, “NASA Video File”, “NASA Edge”, etc…. and NASA-E simply says “Educational Access/NASA” 24/7.

    Don’t you have the entire mission managed well enough that you can know when a good “broadcast opportunity” will take place and let the rest of us know when we should watch?

    Thanks

  7. Goodness, you guys are streaming a lot of video at your site! Good job juggling all the content and presenting it in a neat, coherent fashion on your home page.

Comments are closed.