May 14, 1997

Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-0873)

Catherine Watson
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/244-5050)

Release: I97-5

Shuttle-Mir Docking Mission Video Available Over Internet

NASA's Shuttle Web will provide continuous audio and video coverage of the STS-84 Shuttle-Mir mission in a second test of the latest technology for streaming video over the Internet.

Working with Technology Interface Inc. and other commercial Internet service and content providers, NASA will use a Dutch-manufactured product called "WebCam" to stream NASA Television programming over the World Wide Web. In addition to "cybercasting" the launch and landing, NASA will transmit live video of the activities of the combined Atlantis-Mir crew, all mission briefings and the daily "Mission Update" program.

Links to the video stream through American and European reflectors are available on the NASA Shuttle Web, which maintains a constant address of:

http://shuttle.nasa.gov

WebCam requires no plug-ins or special software for video streaming, and is capable of providing synchronized audio through audio-streaming software.

This experiment will help NASA continue to evaluate the use of video technology for future missions. If the cybercast functions as expected and network bandwidth considerations can be successfully addressed, the agency may provide similar coverage on future missions.

text-only version of this release