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Comment by IshKebab | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah the whole production of the launch broadcast was pretty lousy compared to what SpaceX does. Their mission tracker website isn't working either. Considering that this broadcast and the other public affairs stuff is essentially the deliverable of the mission, it's not too great.

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. The camera work was atrocious.

It's not just frilly video, it's how the world sees it, emotionally connects to it, and grows up loving it, and wanting to support more.

We had black screens as it left the pad, they didn't know what camera to switch to and kept changing feeds every 2-3 seconds, they switched to a grainy feed of the crowd just looking up while booster separation happened, so we missed that, and hastily switched back after they separated.

All the prep and they couldn't come up with a media plan? Maybe it was technical problems and their camera indexing was off or something.

They had the longest reaction shot of some people filming it with their phones (maybe they got a good shot) and when they switched back to after the booster separation I said at the time, “that would have been cool to see.”

Yeah it was horrible. Why are we here, to watch a video feed of other people watching it live through their phones?

We have 30 seconds maybe while this thing is in the local atmosphere, Jesus Christ just keep the camera on it and let us watch it launch.

I know this sounds like whining, and part of me is annoyed that I'm so annoyed at this. But it was just such an emotional moment, and it felt like the media team had no plan or any idea what to do.

Even in the 1960s with 1960s technology they made better broadcast video of the Apollo launches than this.

I suspect that they might have switched away from the booster separation on purpose. That's probably a risky moment of the launch, and they may have wanted to avoid televising a disaster like in the Challenger launch.

Aside from that, agreed that the camera work was awful.

> I suspect that they might have switched away from the booster separation on purpose.

I don't think so. Just before they switched away the camera panned wildly and lost track of the rocket. They were pretty clearly switching away because of that.

Yeah, missing the booster sep was a real bummer

Everyday Astronaut's tracking was perfect.

You should always seek out the best. From watching lots of Everyday Astronaut streams over the years, I knew the stream would be the best live experience because they care about and focus on the production. NASA cares and focuses on the rocket, astronauts, mission. I'm fine with that.

It's hard enough to train a camera on race cars speeding by at 250+ kilometers an hour.

But it isn't speeding by, it's heading away following a closely predetermined trajectory. A better analogy would be filming a high-altitude aircraft flying away from you, using a gear-driven tripod mount.

It is hard, but Everyday Astronaut had a manually-operated camera with a 2,000mm lens that captured everything from engine start all the way through a reasonably-clear view of SRB separation.

In 4k, at 720fps.

(I didn't bother with watching the NASA feed.)

I wish we'd known this before the launch

Both myself and my 12yo were disappointed by the NASA feed, it was more like the matter-of-fact coverage of 'routine' Shuttle launches of the 1980s than something worthy of this historic mission.

Yeah I watched the official feed because SpaceX's official feeds are always the best thing to watch for their launches and I guessed the same would be true for NASA. Especially since this whole program is essentially a PR exercise. Oh well.

Well, now you know. :)

Always watch Everyday Astronaut's live feeds for rocket launches. It's the primary gig for some of those involved, so they care a lot about making it something that is both informative and superb.

I can get a gimble for my phone that can follow me running. What could NASA do?

SpaceX manages it for their launches

They also launch every 2-3 days. They’ve just had so much opportunity to perfect that.

SpaceX also has Starlink which helps provide live video feeds on the ships and also higher bandwidth for telemetry.

https://www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2024/02/08/now-we-know-ho...

Well, yes, we certainly can as is shown by the coverage of SpaceX launches. I guess NASA is just not as focused on publicity as commercial launch operators are. They should have read The Right Stuff and learned the mantra No bucks, no Buck Rogers. Next time, better I hope.

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