Yahoo announced today it will provide free Windows Media format video streams of the 12-day space shuttle Discovery mission via Yahoo Web sites and the NASA home page. The video will be NASA’s official video coverage of the flight, and include lift-off, 24/7 coverage of the mission itself, and the return landing. The video will be promoted throughout Yahoo’s network of services.
The Discovery mission was originally scheduled to launch July 13 for a planned 12-day mission, during which it would rendezvous with the International Space Station and test methods for repairing heat-protecting tiles on the shuttle itself. The mission will mark the first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster in which all seven astronauts died during re-entry. However, NASA scrubbed the launch with just over two hours left in the launch countdown due to a faulty fuel-tank sensor. No new launch schedule has been announced.
The streaming video arrangement marks one of NASA’s first media partnerships with online media providers. NASA said video streaming in conjunction with Yahoo enables it to provide high-quality access to the video feeds via the Internet at no additional costs to taxpayers. Separately, media-streaming company Akamai Technologies will provide the same NASA video feed for RealPlayer via the NASA Web site.
