This Week in Space 154: The View From On High

Summary

Podcast Summary: This Week in Space 154: The View From On High

Podcast Information:

• Title: All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)
• Host/Authors: Rod Pyle (Editor-in-Chief, Badass Magazine) and Tarek Malik (Editor-in-Chief, Space.com)
• Description: Leo Laporte brings together some of the most interesting personalities in technology to discuss the most pressing issues in a fun, relaxed, and informative manner.
• Episode: This Week in Space 154: The View From On High
• Release Date: March 28, 2025

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview (00:00 - 02:29)

The episode kicks off with Rod Pyle and Tarek Malik introducing the main topics:

• NASA's recent $420 million contract cuts via Doge.
• Boeing Starliner's delay to 2026.
• Insight from Liam Kennedy of CEN and ISS Above on the "overview effect" and the development of a live-streaming camera from space.

Notable Quote:

• Liam Kennedy (02:00): "To meet Eeyore. Oh, oh, I get it."

2. NASA's $420 Million Contract Cuts (02:43 - 04:50)

Rod and Tarek delve into NASA's significant budget reduction, highlighting Doge's role in terminating $420 million in contracts deemed unnecessary or redundant. They discuss the implications of these cuts on NASA's operations and emphasize the importance of public awareness and advocacy for continued NASA funding.

Notable Quotes:

• Tarek Malik (03:06): "These were, I guess, either extraneous or contracts they didn't truly have to have... redundant or misaligned."
• Liam Kennedy (04:06): "Now, Doge called these unneeded contracts... why would we want to be accountable to the public for their tax dollars?"

3. Boeing Starliner's Delay to 2026 (04:53 - 07:55)

The conversation shifts to Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which has faced delays pushing its crewed launch to early 2026. The discussion covers previous technical issues, including helium leaks and failed thrusters, and outlines Boeing's roadmap to resolve these problems to meet NASA’s safety standards.

Notable Quotes:

• Liam Kennedy (05:00): "Starliner kind of made itself a bit of a punchline."
• Tarek Malik (05:08): "Hopefully meet NASA and Boeing specs to get astronauts back on board this thing."

4. Northrop Grumman's Cargo Launch Setback (07:09 - 08:13)

Rod and Tarek discuss the cancellation of Northrop Grumman's CRS-22 mission due to damage to the Cygnus spacecraft during shipping. The impact on subsequent cargo deliveries and NASA's contingency plans, including increased use of SpaceX's Dragon, are examined.

Notable Quotes:

• Liam Kennedy (07:55): "How would you like to be the guy named Cliff who secured the straps around the Cygnus and it got banged?"
• Tarek Malik (08:09): "I would very much not like be that guy."

5. Upcoming Space Missions (08:13 - 11:03)

The hosts highlight two major upcoming missions:

• Fram2Yeah Mission (March 31, 2025): A private mission marking the first human spaceflight over Earth’s poles, funded by cryptocurrency magnate Chun Wang from Malta. The mission includes a crew conducting scientific experiments and capturing unprecedented Earth views.
• Katy Perry's Blue Origin Launch (April 14, 2025): An all-female mission featuring celebrities like Gayle King, marking the first all-female spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova in the 1960s.

Notable Quotes:

• Liam Kennedy (09:21): "He's bringing Janika Mikkelsen... a German engineer specializing in robotics and polar research."
• Tarek Malik (10:32): "It's an all-female mission... the first since the 60s."

6. Partial Solar Eclipse Announcement (10:36 - 11:28)

A brief reminder is given about an upcoming partial solar eclipse visible over northern US and Canada, with live streams available on Space.com starting early morning.

Notable Quotes:

• Tarek Malik (11:15): "Annulars can also be partial solar eclipses until they're total."
• Rod Pyle (11:28): "Everyone should go see it or watch it online."

7. Featured Guest: Liam Kennedy on ISS Above (14:04 - 66:19)

Introduction to Liam Kennedy (14:04 - 15:45): Liam Kennedy, the founder and inventor of ISS Above and a Space TV director for CEN, joins the discussion. He explains his role in directing live camera feeds from the International Space Station (ISS), providing high-resolution (4K) live views of Earth, a feature not previously offered by NASA.

Key Topics Discussed:

• ISS Above and SEN:

  • Rod Pyle (21:12): "ISS above is a Raspberry PI computer that you customized, is that right?"
  • Liam elaborates on the evolution from the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment to ISS Above, emphasizing the importance of providing continuous, high-quality live streams of Earth from space.

• The Overview Effect:

  • Defined by astronauts like Frank White as the cognitive shift in awareness when viewing Earth from space, fostering a sense of global unity and environmental stewardship.
  • Rod Pyle (49:44): "It's something that happens when you really put yourself in the position of this is really happening right now."

• Technical Challenges and Innovations:

  • The integration of custom-designed cameras on the ISS, addressing previous limitations of NASA’s equipment.
  • Rod Pyle (33:15): "Our bandwidth allocation goes through the ESA's allocation... we have a top limit of about 10 meg."

• Future Plans:

  • Expansion to other platforms beyond the ISS, including potential placements on private space missions and lunar orbiting spacecraft.
  • Rod Pyle (59:48): "We're definitely... [aiming] to be everywhere for the public."

Notable Quotes:

• Liam Kennedy (54:02): "Space TV is actually the name of our payload... streaming those live views to the earth right now."
• Rod Pyle (53:27): "ISS above is just sort of an adjacent thing to what SEN is. It really is that the ISS above is my origin story of how I got here."

8. Audience Engagement and Future Prospects (66:10 - 64:35)

The hosts entertain audience suggestions, discuss potential enhancements like VR streaming, and contemplate the longevity of ISS Above should the ISS deorbit. They emphasize their commitment to maintaining and expanding live space views despite challenges.

Notable Quotes:

• Tarek Malik (63:55): "I have a suggestion... have the camera system... jetties on to the next private space."
• Rod Pyle (64:12): "If we can do it, we'll do it."

9. Conclusion and Wrap-Up (66:36 - 70:09)

Rod and Liam wrap up the episode by promoting ISS Above, encouraging listeners to visit the website and follow on social media for live streams and updates. They also remind listeners about the upcoming solar eclipse and share personal sign-offs, reinforcing community engagement.

Notable Quotes:

• Rod Pyle (65:20): "Go to ISS above and follow SEN... making those views available to you."
• Liam Kennedy (66:24): "It's a lonely world without having you in Club Twit."

---

Key Takeaways:

• NASA Budget Cuts: Significant reductions in NASA's contracts may impact ongoing and future missions, emphasizing the need for public advocacy.
• Boeing Starliner Delays: Technical challenges continue to push back the crewed launch of the Starliner spacecraft.
• ISS Above Initiative: Liam Kennedy’s project successfully provides high-resolution live streams from the ISS, enhancing public access to space views and promoting the overview effect.
• Upcoming Missions: Exciting private and celebrity-impacted missions are set to break new ground in space exploration.
• Solar Eclipse: An anticipated partial solar eclipse offers a unique celestial event for enthusiasts to observe both live and online.

Final Remarks: This episode of This Week in Space offers a comprehensive look into current space news, innovative projects like ISS Above, and the profound psychological impacts of viewing Earth from space. Listeners are encouraged to engage with the content through various platforms and stay informed about the dynamic landscape of space exploration.

Transcript

[Tarek Malik]

On this episode of this Week in Space, NASA makes some Doge cuts. Boeing Starliner slips to 2026. And Liam Kennedy from CEN and ISS above is going to tell us what that overview effect is and what it's like to build a camera that beams live video from space. So tune in, don't miss it.

[Rod Pyle]

Podcasts you love from people you Trust. This is TWiT.

[Liam Kennedy]

This is this Week in Space, episode number 154, recorded on March 28, 2025. The view from on High. Hello, and welcome to another episode, this Week in Space, the View from on High edition. I'm Rod Pyle, editor in chief, Badass magazine. I'm joined by my orbiting buddy, Tarek Malik, editor in [e-mail] hello, partner.

[Tarek Malik]

Hello, Rod. How are you doing today? Happy Friday.

[Liam Kennedy]

I'm doing okay. There's a whole story there, but I'm not going to go into it because why waste people's time with my problems? We'll be joined very shortly by Liam Kennedy, who is a very cool guy, an old friend of both Tariks, myself, and the gentleman behind ISS above, which is one of the coolest products you're going to hear about between now and Christmas. And also working with the company Ascend, that has installed cameras on the International Space Station that you can access in 4K camera, which is not something that NASA ever provided you. So that's incredibly cool. Now, before we start, because we're cool too sometimes, please don't forget to do us a solid. Make sure to like and subscribe, do the other podcast things, because we love you and we need to know that you love us. All right, and now it's time for a space joke.

[Tarek Malik]

I'm ready. I look forward to it every week. Oh, whoa.

[Liam Kennedy]

Thank you very much.

[Rod Pyle]

Is that new?

[Liam Kennedy]

Yes. This one comes from my friend James golden, who I've been working with for a few months. Brilliant guy. Hey.

[Rod Pyle]

Hey.

[Liam Kennedy]

Tarik.

[Tarek Malik]

Yes, Rod?

[Liam Kennedy]

Why did Winnie the Pooh go to space?

[Tarek Malik]

I don't know, Rod. For honey.

[Liam Kennedy]

To meet Eeyore. To meet Eeyore. Oh, oh, I get it.

[Tarek Malik]

I get it.

[Liam Kennedy]

I know it's all in the crust.

[Tarek Malik]

That doesn't deserve a sound effect. What? No.

[Liam Kennedy]

Okay, I'll do one then. Okay, good.

[Tarek Malik]

Thank you.

[Liam Kennedy]

Now, I've heard some people want to send us to International Space Station with his joke time of this show. But you can help by sending us your best, worst, or most different space joke to Twistswit tv.

[Tarek Malik]

I like that one.

[Liam Kennedy]

We will use them and give you credit. And I Like it, too.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah.

[Liam Kennedy]

Mr. Cranky Pants, John Ashley. All right, so everyone's a critic. Let's move on to the news. From Space News.

[Tarek Malik]

Yes, from Space News. Headline News headline. Oh, I missed it.

[Liam Kennedy]

Hey, John Ashley is on the case. From Space News, we have NASA cutting $420 million. Via our friends at DOGE. Not our friends. Now, is this the science budget or something else?

[Tarek Malik]

So these are contracts? Yeah, this was something that NASA confirmed. So Jeff Faust over at Space News spotted this one because Doge tweeted out on Friday how great a job NASA did cutting or terminating $420 million in contracts. And. And Bethany Stevens, the NASA press secretary, confirmed it to Space News, saying that. That they did, in fact, get those. Now, Doge called these unneeded contracts. Bethany Stevens, she said that NASA was committed to optimizing their workforce in cooperation with Doge. And. And that the. These were, I guess, either extraneous or. Or contracts they didn't truly have to have, you know, that they're redundant or misaligned.

[Liam Kennedy]

You mean that things like, like showing the public. And I'm referring to my contract here, which was canceled a year and a half ago, like showing the public what NASA is actually doing with their money. That's considered extraneous because why would we want to be accountable to the public for their tax dollars? We're spending by demonstrating what's actually happening.

[Tarek Malik]

In the good works, apparently. Yeah. I mean, there's. There's. I could write you a book. Well, I couldn. You. I could tell you how I would want to write you a book.

[Liam Kennedy]

You keep claiming you're going to write a book about.

[Tarek Malik]

About all of the. All of the transparency stuff. That's not. That's not happening right now. It's a pain and a half. But. But this was, like, one of the first, like, really significant, I think, confirmations about DOGE cuts from contracts and whatnot. And. And I'm sure it's not going to be the last. You know, so I thought it was worth kind of flagging to let everyone know that this is going on because it's budget season. We're waiting for the skinny budget from the new administration to see. And, and if. If you always care about NASA funding, this is the time to write your, you know, representative or senator and say, hey, support this. You know, that kind of thing and.

[Liam Kennedy]

Try and keep it civil. All right?

[Tarek Malik]

Exactly.

[Liam Kennedy]

Now. Theresfspace.com oh, hold on. Boeing Starliner in 2026.

[Tarek Malik]

Oh, yeah.

[Liam Kennedy]

Why were you laughing?

[Tarek Malik]

Why are you laughing?

[Liam Kennedy]

Because I'm cruel. No, because Starliner kind of made itself a bit of a punchline.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah. We got an update finally from NASA and Boeing this week about the plans for testing during the crew, the Crew 9 landing. There were a lot of questions to NASA's Commercial Crew Office about what is happening with Starliner, when will it fly, astronauts, etc. And what NASA outlined was their big plan to really, I guess, soup to nuts, test the helium issues that they had on the threshing thrusters out in the desert over the summer with a goal of a late 2025, but most likely early 2026 next Starliner crew launch. I believe it's a crew launch right now, but it's still, I guess it all depends on how these tests go. And to remind people there were issues with the helium leaks in their propulsion system and the failure of five of 28 RCS thrusters basically during this last flight that they have to address in different ways. And they have now outlined their for that. It's going to happen over the next few weeks and months through the summer over at White Sands and hopefully meet, you know, NASA and Boeing specs to get astronauts back on board this thing.

[Liam Kennedy]

I think we should go out and help them by inhaling helium and talking like chipmunks.

[Tarek Malik]

We should do a whole episode. That'd be awesome.

[Liam Kennedy]

Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea. Of course that means you got to breathe a lot of human hour. Okay, which one do you want to do next?

[Tarek Malik]

Well, we, we can, we can do a couple of things. I think shotgun mode. Right. Because we're talking about Boeing and commercial spacecraft. Just to let everybody know there was an issue that you don't see every day. Northrop Grumman's next cargo launch on a Cygnus spacecraft, which right now is launching on SpaceX rockets until Northrop Grumman builds a new one, actually has been canceled. They're gonna Skip Northrop Grumman CRS 22, go straight to CRS 23 in the fall. Because the spacecraft itself was damaged when it was being shipped from Europe after final assembly to Florida. They were hoping it was just the canister that it was in during shipping.

[Liam Kennedy]

So it was the Antares rocket.

[Tarek Malik]

This is. No, this is, it's the Cygnus spacecraft, the cargo ship. So the entire rocket right now is in an engine redevelopment. So it's gonna have a US built engine. And so while they're waiting for that, they're launching on SpaceX Dragon. NASA said that they're going to add food and, and supplies and stuff. So that the actual, yeah, the actual spacecraft, the actual Cygnus spacecraft for this flight got damaged and apparently to the point where it's either unsalvageable or can't be fixed in time for, for a spring launch. So the next one will be in the fall. They'll amp up the deliveries on a, on a visiting dragon in April so that there is enough food, is enough water, all that stuff for the crew and hopefully things will be, will work out.

[Liam Kennedy]

So how would you like to be the guy named Cliff who was actually the one that secured the straps around the Cygnus and as it was being lifted one of the snaps straps let go and bang, down it went and got banged.

[Tarek Malik]

I would very much not like be that guy.

[Liam Kennedy]

So yeah, that would be, that would be a bad day. Okay.

[Tarek Malik]

But speaking of, speaking of launches, just very, very quick, very quick note. We will have a historic launch on March 31st. That is the Fram2Yeah mission. It's the first ever human space flight over Earth's poles. And this is financed, it's one of those private missions that SpaceX launched by, by. I'm going to get this wrong. Cryptocurrency magnate is how we described them from Malta, Chun Wang, who is paying for the whole thing. Everything is private. There's some really interesting people on board but they'll spend, you know, about a week in space doing science experiments. And, and it's very much in that same mold as the Isaacman Polaris flights. Right. So they, the SpaceX has a line for these but they're launching Polar from Florida and that'll be very exciting.

[Liam Kennedy]

Which has never ever, ever been done.

[Tarek Malik]

Never been done before.

[Liam Kennedy]

I mean military satellites go on polar orbits but never accrued one. So this is a big deal. And he has single handedly raised the percentage of Maltese citizens that are astronauts to be higher than anywhere else on the planet. Right. Because only Lichtenstein or the Vatican would even compare.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah, yeah. So that's great. And he's bringing, he has Janika Mikkelsen from a Norwegian filmmaker as the Fram 2 mission commander. He has Rabia, I think it's Roger is how you pronounce her last name as the pilot. She's an engineer and scientist from Germany. She specializes in robotics and polar research. Big, big mission for her to fly over the poles from space. You have Eric Phillips as their medical officer. He's a Australian polar explorer. And, and so they're going to have a good week in space and really just, you know, to give up. They got Their own experiments, of course, but they're going to see some sites that we haven't seen in, you know, ever with human eyes.

[Liam Kennedy]

Okay, hold on. I'm stifling a yawn. Katy Perry has a launch date.

[Tarek Malik]

Katy Perry, that's right. We talked about Katy Perry going to space on the all female Blue Origin launch. Now we. When it's the day before tax day, April 14, she launches with Gayle King and Jeff Bezos's fiance who is kind of organizing the whole flight. And it's, it's an all female mission. Of course. It's the first all female mission since Valentina Tereshkova in the 60s, which I was really surprised to learn that stat. You'd think that that would have happened.

[Liam Kennedy]

Before and that's only because she was solo.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So. So just a quick note, if you're wondering where that mission is, that's where that mission is. And then finally, just as a reminder, there is a solar eclipse tomorrow. A partial solar. A partial solar eclipse over the, you know, far northern US and Canada. But Canada is the best place to be. Of course. At Space.com, we will have live streams. It starts quite early, like 5:30 in the morning. So you have to wait.

[Liam Kennedy]

Showing a picture there in your article of an annular. This isn't an annular, right?

[Tarek Malik]

No, it's a partial solar eclipse. Yeah, so. But annulars can also be partial solar eclipses until they're total.

[Liam Kennedy]

Well, they never really get total.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah, exactly. So. Well, the hybrid ones do. But anyway, we're not here to parlance eclipse talk. We're here to say there's an eclipse coming. Everyone should go see it or watch it online. It's worth getting it up to.

[Liam Kennedy]

Say, look at the COVID of the upcoming issue of Ad Astra magazine. If you're on video, look at. See the Chesley Bonestell inspired. This is Jim Vaughn, our cover illustrator who does really great work. And actually the COVID illustration, which I've been dying to use for a couple of years, even though it's kind of, you know, not exactly realistic to be hanging out right next to Saturn like that anytime soon, but inspired me to write a story about a big study that came out of JPL a while back on outer solar system human crewed missions.

[Tarek Malik]

So nice. I would love to see that in.

[Liam Kennedy]

A bookstore near you very soon. This is the. The hard proof check copy. So it'll be in the mail in a couple of weeks.

[Tarek Malik]

I'll have to pick one up. I have to pick one up or.

[Liam Kennedy]

Just join the national space [e-mail] and you can get free copies by being a member.

[Tarek Malik]

Wow. Maybe I'll do that instead.

[Liam Kennedy]

One every three months. All right, we are going to run to a quick break and then we'll be back with Liam Kennedy. So strap in listeners.

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[Liam Kennedy]

And we are back with Liam Kennedy who is the founder and inventor of ISS above and a space TV director for sin. Liam, what does it mean to be a space TV director? Because that's something that sounds very cool and I wish I was one.

[Rod Pyle]

I know exactly what you mean, Rod. Yeah. What does that space TV director actually mean? It really means just whatever I make it up to mean. But yeah, it's the coolest job title I've ever had. Thank you so much to Charles Black who is the founder of SEN and we are an organization that is set up to stream live views of the earth from space and allow that to be free to the public to view. And Space TV is actually the name of our payload, which is on the International Space Station and streaming those live views to the earth right now. And so Space TV director, I guess I'm technically the dude who is pulling the strings on camera 1, camera 2, camera 3 on the space station. So that's part of what I do. And every day I'm capturing clips from our payload and then our team are curating those, sharing them on socials, and obviously making them available to everyone 247 through our streaming channel, both on YouTube and on our own website, send.com.

[Liam Kennedy]

All right, well, we're going to have a lot more questions about that. But before I have my questions, Tarek has his trademark question for you.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah, well, you know, Liam, whenever new guests come on the show, we usually like to ask what their space story is. What was your road to space that led you to become a space director? I know you've done some, some other other work too, including founding ISS above which we've got links to to on, on our, on our, our sheet here. But you know, what, what was it? Was it something when you were a kid that really grabbed you and you were like, I'm gonna find my place in this space per se, or was it just like a happenstance discovery that happened later on in life?

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah. So I'll start first of all, the very initial part of me that sort of got inspired to do all of this was my 6 year old version of me. That was how old I was when the Apollo moon landing was happening. So at six years old, I was the guy in the uk. That's where I'm from. And I was the reason that my whole family had to stay up all night and wait for the moon landing to happen. And I heard later in life that my siblings were rather ticked off with me that I was the one that did that. But they forgave me in the end. So I've always been interested in space for as long as I can remember, obviously. I moved over to the U.S. at one point, started up a software development company in the late 90s and into the 2000s, and during that time got involved a lot in live streaming, was doing live streaming of events for quite some time. And then during that I got hooked on astronomy and space. I was president of Orange County Astronomers in Orange County, California.

[Tarek Malik]

Oh my gosh. Neighbors. Oh, there you go for the Los Angeles Times.

[Rod Pyle]

There you go. So, you know, really just that's what got me into this. And I started out A public access TV show called Look Up Tonight. And that got me, you know, when you have that kind of thing, you know, you have a reason to connect with people like the Planetary Society and jpl. And I had lots of interviews and things like that with those folks. But really what's inspired me is to be someone who is like an informal educator for the public about space and science. And my show then was called Look Up Tonight. And part of what we do, many astronomers do, you take your telescopes out to the public and you show them amazing things in the skies. And what was happening, if you remember, end of the 90s was when the space station was being built.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah.

[Rod Pyle]

So commonly part of the evening show was, oh, look up, there is a space shuttle about to dock with the space station. And all of that got me really understanding that the public, many of them, had no clue that we even had an international space station.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah.

[Rod Pyle]

So it was my job to make sure that people understood that that was happening. And that's where I invented this little thing behind me called the ISS above. And you'll see it's flashing. It's a Raspberry PI computer that tracks the space station and lights up whenever the station is above.

[Liam Kennedy]

Let's, let's get into that detail later because I need to jump in with some more questions.

[Rod Pyle]

Go for it.

[Liam Kennedy]

And I have to ask you, where the heck were you when I was running Pasadena Community Television for a year and a half? Because I was stuck with endless city council meetings, cat lady videos of all the cute kittens. But my favorite was a woman who did. Who staged a sitcom in her garden with plants talking to each other. And it was actually very clever. A little insane, but very clever. But I would have killed to have your show or your feed on what we were doing.

[Tarek Malik]

But you were in pasadena, home of JPL and the Planetary Society.

[Liam Kennedy]

Right. This was 91. There was no way to get that stuff for us.

[Tarek Malik]

I want to commend Liam, just, just, I mean, the live stream, like getting into that in the 90s when it was still like on the pages, it was Dial up. Yeah, yeah, 4400.

[Liam Kennedy]

That's right.

[Rod Pyle]

We did Dial Up Up. I live streamed a whole astronomy conference from UC Irvine in 1998 from dial.

[Tarek Malik]

Up to the International Space Station.

[Liam Kennedy]

Yeah, we did a. Sometime in the early late 80s, I guess it was. We did the shuttle return to flight at Griffith Observatory. And I had to organize getting a signal. So we got a temporary satellite dish. I think it was K band or KU band or something. I mean, it's huge. It was the size of a car just to get the live link so we could put up planetarium theater. Anyway, that's what we're here to talk about. So what is the difference between ISS above and sen? That was something I'm not quite clear on.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, So I created ISS above in 2013 to inspire. Really it was to inspire my grandson Owen to know every time the astronauts were above. It was my, my thing was having more people aware that this was going on. And the way that I did that was to hook people in by having this cool gizmo that lights up when the space station's above. And that's what was featured on early episodes of Coding 101 on TWIT, a whole set of things like that.

[Liam Kennedy]

He's a friend of the family, John. He's got pictures of him with his arm draped around Leo's shoulder. And Leo's looking real happy and everything. So yeah, he's an old timer.

[Rod Pyle]

But what that device does, you plug it into a TV and it shows you all this info about every time the space station's passing by the crew. And then in April 2014 was when NASA started live streaming views of the Earth from their own cameras full time. And that was through an experiment called hdev, the High Definition Earth Viewing Experiment. And what that really showed is when I started displaying that through the ISS above over here, that all the folks who got one through a Kickstarter. If you've been to the Planetary Society office anytime since then, my ISS aboves are attached to every single big screen TV that's in the Planetary Society offices and been there since 2015 whenever they moved into that new place. So through all of that time, these devices were in schools and science centers. There's now 5,000 of these all around the world. And schools feature this live video feed from NASA's camera. They have been doing it for all that time. But I discovered early on that the live feed from NASA's cameras was not guaranteed. There were times when HDEV was supposed to be removed in 2017. Luckily it didn't, but it eventually died in 2019. So I, the dude who just created this thing for my grandkids, I wanted to make sure that there was a secure system that provided live views of the Earth to the public. When you have this kind of system and you have schools, teachers relying upon it, you really do appreciate how much the public appreciates these views when they know it's available. So I personally went on my own journey to try and secure upgraded cameras because you're probably like me, you want things to be as high quality as they possibly can. And that's so I was on a journey to upgrade them from the low quality high def that NASA had to higher quality 4k and sen is really for me that ultimate fulfillment of the promise that I gave to myself and to the public that we would have upgraded cameras and a camera system that would be available free to the public.

[Liam Kennedy]

So I'm the guy that, you know, people will say that kind of thing do surely want the highest quality. And I mean I worked in television for 20 years and half the time I look at it go what? This isn't the highest quality. I don't know if it's just my old eyes or just ignorance of my part, but we're going to find out when we come back from this break. So stand by. We'll be right back.

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[Liam Kennedy]

All right, Tarek you're up.

[Tarek Malik]

Well, yeah, I guess that's the. The next question was that evolution, you know, to send. There are. There may be people out there, Liam, who don't know what SEN is. And you know, how that story took place. And there is a difference. I am one of those whose heart was broken when the HDF cameras went offline. And we have these, these other ones here and you can tell. And now, and I don't know if it's too much of a spoiler, the difference between watching a spacecraft arrive or leave the station through the send cameras versus that one that's still working on the space station that stretches out the vehicles and makes them look like cartoons of themselves.

[Liam Kennedy]

When you say that one that stretches out, you mean the NASA camera?

[Tarek Malik]

The NASA camera, yeah. The older one that is clearly all grainy for what we're all using. So explain what SEN is. You know, you found obviously, like minds to make this happen. And it wasn't like you snapped your fingers and you got cameras on the International Space Station overnight. So what, what is sen? What's the goal? To, I guess evolve that, that view from space. You know, passion that you have.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so. So sen, at its heart is a company that's set out to stream live views of the Earth and of other locations from space and make them available free to the public. I've got to credit Charles Black, the CEO, for coming up with that idea when he was just in the early days of his journey through college where he just had the vision that that's what he wanted to leave as a legacy.

[Tarek Malik]

We should point out. Just sorry to interrupt, but for people that are watching the stream, we got views of a Starliner undocking Starline. Absolutely.

[Liam Kennedy]

This isn't live. It was spectacular. This is not live. Starliner hasn't returned.

[Tarek Malik]

Just so that people understand that level of resolution is like sci fi movie level. So. Okay, okay, sorry.

[Rod Pyle]

Let's go back to that moment. I'll fill in the blanks in a little bit. But yeah, so here you're seeing that view of Starliner as it's undocking. And the incredible part of the SEN story is that, is that we only started live streaming 30 minutes before that happened.

[Tarek Malik]

I know, it's.

[Rod Pyle]

And we shared the link to people that we know at Johnson Space center in the flight control room. We actually shared it with the lead flight director, Ed Van Cise, and also Chris Hadfield, who's an advisor and astronaut ambassador with us, shared it with other people at the flight control system there. So they were watching Our feed right as this was happening. And it was a truly iconic moment and just amazing that the stars aligned almost, because that camera system launched March last year, really about this time, and it wasn't installed until the end of August. And then just a short while after is when Starliner undocked and you got that view. So the camera system that's on the space station is not the first camera that we've had in space. In fact, we've been on two prior systems. And this is what got my attention. Remember when we were all crying ourselves to sleep, Tarek, when the HDEV died, it was July 29th or something was when it was in 2019, I was at the ISS R&D conference giving another presentation there about my ideas for replacing the cameras. So that died. But earlier on that year, May 2019, I discovered that there was this company called Sen who launched their own hosted payload of a set of six cameras on a satellite called Arabsat A, I think it is. It was actually built by Russian Energia. And Charles's pathway to sort of get this here culminated in that moment where he'd managed to get this 6 camera system on that satellite. And then it was really used. Its primary purpose was to capture spacecraft operations like solar panels opening and things like that. But he designed it in such a way, the engineers designed it, that it would be able to live stream for the very first time, 4K Earth views. And that happened in May of 2019. So that's when, shortly after that, that's where I reached out to Charles and we got talking about, you know, all of the further ideas that were going on to get. Eventually I was the guy that was just outside of all of this and selfishly wanted for the benefit of you and others, that we would have that capability on the space station. And the result is, yes, we've got that. But between Then and now, CEN also have their own satellite called ETV A1 Earth TV that was built by a third party and we integrated our camera system onto that. That was launched in January of 2022. Been up there ever since. And that was really another test case. So. So all of those were about testing our completely custom design, sensors, lens, all of the processing power, all of that is under our control. And that's now what is on the space station. Now, you may wonder how on Earth, you know, we're a commercial company, how do we get there?

[Tarek Malik]

How do you make money doing that, Liam, if you're providing live views of Earth for free.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so it's for free. As you'll expect with a catch. The catch is that yeah, it's on platforms where there will be advertising. So consequently, you know, like right now, if you were to go to YouTube, you would see ads coming in every now and again unless you have YouTube Premium. So if ever there was a reason to get YouTube Premium, this is the reason to get it.

[Liam Kennedy]

So excuse me, if I'm on YouTube, what am I looking up?

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so the SEN channel is just called Sen. So if you just go to YouTube.com sen or even just Sen, it will take you to the YouTube channel and then there's only one live stream on there. You will see hundreds of clips. So the best place to see clips is actually on send.com we curate them there. The other way that yes, there are opportunities for us to return investor value is that folks can purchase the clips. So although it's free for private use, it's not available for people to download the clips and use them themselves without coming to us for a proper license. So as you'd expect for any organization that is involved in media, they sort of work, work with that so you can get the clips in various different ways. And the other part of this is that think of us as the go to location for live views of the Earth in this case. But we have plans for other destinations too. But really wherever people want to be included in the space race, we want to be the eyes rather than as an afterthought, sort of like, you know, there can be operational reasons to have cameras on spacecraft. We. And by the way, the live feed right now is just about to be sunrise. So if there was any way to bring it up, sunrise is happening at this very second. There you go. I know it's the corner and you've seen the other bit that's lighting up there.

[Liam Kennedy]

Sorry to the people listening the audio stream, but this is sensational.

[Tarek Malik]

The sun is rising in the lower right corner. There is a Dragon spacecraft on the left docked to the station, slowly being revealed from the blackness of space.

[Liam Kennedy]

Tarek, you should have been on radio.

[Rod Pyle]

You are space TV director. Tarek, that is exactly what.

[Liam Kennedy]

Well, or at least play by play. Hey, I want to ask you what it takes. I mean as a normal couple of citizens, I mean you, Charles, did this together. I guess what it takes to get a camera space rated because I know that ain't easy having worked with NASA on a couple of space act agreements. So I want to learn all about that as soon as we get back from this next break. So hold on to your ejection seats. We'll be right back listeners.

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[Liam Kennedy]

So let's say, oh, somebody like Tarik wants to fly something to the space station, and then somebody's gotta, I guess, take it in their gloved hand to go out and install it on the outside of the space station.

[Tarek Malik]

Why? It's, why is it not me? It should be me to do that.

[Liam Kennedy]

Oh, there's so many reasons, you know, I mean, so there's requirements about how it's constructed, how it handles electricity, is it outgassing, anything nasty that's going to poison the environmental control system when it goes on and on and on. How do you do this without having a billion dollars at your disposal?

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, that is the big question.

[Tarek Malik]

He said.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so because it does take a lot. Now San obviously went through several stages of proving its technology and having it flight hardware tested. So a lot of that was done through the first project and the second project and then, and I came into it at a point where I was just this dude who created this cool Tool. I've got to say, NASA have been very supportive of what I've provided through ISS above. They always love it when someone is adding value to what they're doing. So during that journey I became an education partner with the ISS National Lab, otherwise known as casis. They are the, the group that were designated to get commercial opportunities happening on the space station. So I'd known for many years that there was a pathway for any kind of commercial company to get their payloads onto the space station. And that's where I found out that there was this new location called Bartolomeo. That's the location on the space station. Location, location, location is what is important. And this is right at the front of the station, has commanding views and in fact I can show you a little demo of where this is and I will get back to the detail of NASA safety reviews and what that meant for going through this. I don't know if you want me to take you on a little journey to show you where this camera is on the screen.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah. So what we're seeing here, by the way, anyone who has a reason to get this, you can apply to get this software. You could have this. And it's the highest resolution fidelity version of the space station. And in fact, so what I'm zooming in here, I'm going over the crew Dragon right here and our camera is.

[Tarek Malik]

Right over here on ESA's Columbus module.

[Rod Pyle]

On the Columbus module, that's right. And our camera doesn't look like a camera system and you can't see the lenses, but it's this little box right here and we have six cameras, two pointed at the docking port, two pointing down and two pointing at the horizon. And that's what we just saw is the docking cam. And that's where you got to see the great view of the sun rising. But if I go. So I'm going to go up and out a little bit to show you this. So do you remember hdev? Yes, that was just over here. Hope everyone's enjoying being an astronaut. That was really.

[Liam Kennedy]

I'm getting vertigo.

[Rod Pyle]

This corner here, and that's how you could see both forward and aft because they had a view of the rear, the aft of the station with the Russian segment and then also over this way showing the Earth's limb and such like. So we're in a. We're relatively close to where that is, but we're on this little shelf called Bartolomeo. And on Bartolomeo there are Places for a bunch of different experiments. It's a perfect location for Earth observation because we have this clear, commanding view available to us. Nadir going down and also at the horizon and then also over here at the docking port. And that's what our live view is showing right now. And the current place where NASA has. So when HDEB died, NASA actually went through a couple of different iterations to have cameras available. But where I'm going to take you is where the current one is, which is right over here. And this is. They have a bunch of these scattered around the station. But this one was like a spare one. And what they're doing, I'm going to swivel it around.

[Liam Kennedy]

So for those listening, what you're missing is a high resolution, software generated tour of the space station as it sits at this minute, but as directed by our cast.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so, and let me just go over this. I'm going the wrong way here.

[Liam Kennedy]

And I always love. It's great radio when the host is saying what you can't see right now.

[Rod Pyle]

It'S a home run.

[Liam Kennedy]

Goodbye Mr. Spalding.

[Tarek Malik]

For folks, listen, we've moved from the kind of front end of the station where, where the, the send cameras are to the mid body along the truss is what it looks like here.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so we're right by the solar alpha rotary joint, the starboard one. And that's where NASA's camera is. And Terry, do you recognize. So what we've got here? This is the view that is in NASA's camera pretty much. And there's a whole big obstruction in the field of view. This is literally what you see on the, on the main NASA feature. There's a famous thing here called flap 2, which is basically a spare pump module that was in the way. So this was this. I'm really just showing you this to say, you know, I had your back. Stan had your back.

[Tarek Malik]

You have this nice camera and it's a big old pump module. Those are like the size of a fridge by the way.

[Rod Pyle]

So. And I've got to. So all deference to and recognition for NASA because they had the foresight, there were folks at NASA that said this is what we want to do. We want to make video available for free to the public showing the views of the Earth from the space station. And really what I did, I'm one of those people they inspired. So they only have themselves to blame. And that was part of the story I've been poking at NASA since 2016 about. Are you going to upgrade? When are you going to upgrade? Oh, there's a chance your camera system can die. What's the replacement? And they luckily, you know, took my prodding as, you know, something that was. They tolerated it, I would say, but I kept them informed of what I was doing because along the way to sen, there were several other companies that I took to NASA to have them consider putting cameras on. All of those projects didn't come to fruition. I'm so glad that it was SEN that was in the end because those other companies would have been great. I'd have loved to do them, but to work with them. But SEN has. Its whole mission is to do this. It's not to get a particular camera in space. No, it is about the vision that really encompasses the overview effect that is core to what we're about. It's what drives me. It's what you were drawn to, Tarek, with these views. There's something that happens when you really put yourself in the position of this is really happening right now.

[Tarek Malik]

That's what I wanted to ask. Ness was about that. Right. Because there is. We've heard this on the show from several guests in the past. I've heard it and I know Rod has heard it from astronauts, including Frank White. Exactly.

[Rod Pyle]

Yes.

[Tarek Malik]

The coiner of the term. And one of the things that astronauts have told me and have said publicly when they kind of talked this Ron Garan most notably, I think wrote a whole book about it is. Is just how. I guess, how do I want to say it, how unified maybe like the. The planet is and the impact of that on the beholder. So, so can. Can you kind of go into a little bit about that overview, maybe how it affect. How it affected you when you saw these views and what value you're hoping your viewers who are tapping in just to see what the. What the view might be like on any given day are getting from just seeing the planet in a way that very few, like just over 500 or so people have been able to see with their own eyeballs.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah. So. So let, let me take it. You mentioned the. The person who coined the term overview effect is Frank White, good friend of mine, and he wrote the book called the Overview Effect. Right. So that's where it comes to. But he didn't just write a book, he created the book, created the term before it was really fully acknowledged that that was a thing. Since then he's been a driver of having astronauts really share what happens to them in space when they look at the Earth and how that works for them. And yes, you coined it Great. So Rongarin, he created the book called the Orbital Perspective and again in that same theme. Now we all know you don't necessarily get to see borders from space, but it's really from that point of view. Now when I put ISS above out there, I mercilessly used quotes from customers who described the times when they had it on their tv. This was the old hdev and they talk about how they would have neighbors around who hadn't seen this before and they're sitting in front of the TV with their mouths agape at what they're seeing and as a result they decide to go up and clear out their neighborhood. They have a neighborhood cleanout thing, sort of like something that happens in space. They see themselves from space and then the result is that you get action on the ground. So that's Orbital Perspective, where you take that transformation and then you do something on the ground that improves the way of living.

[Liam Kennedy]

So we're very fortunate that an orbital view can't show the mess that is Tarik's studio. And my studio people would be coming over to help clean us out. I want to come back and talk more about ISS above as soon as we go to our last break. So stand by listeners.

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[Liam Kennedy]

So I don't mean to cut you short if you want to talk more about overview effect. I just want to make sure we actually Talk about the product before we run out of time. Did you have more to say about overview?

[Rod Pyle]

So what I would say is here, take, take note, everyone. The International Space Station passes you by five to eight times every day. And many times throughout the week, there will be times when the station's going right over you. If it happens to be during the daytime, you'll see you in daytime. And I don't know whether you can run the clip that shows where you and I live, Rod. That's the one that shows approaching Long Beach, Louisiana. I live a little bit south from there. I'm talking about where your boat is docked. But that really gives you a sense of how you can feel connected to what's going on in space. When you see yourself from space, and especially if it's in real time, the fact that it's real time is a huge part of what's available here. So it can be in real time over Australia. So throughout the day, you'll see it wherever it is. And yes, there are some things going on in the world. Fires, earthquakes, wars. Just the other night, we went right over Israel, the Middle east, and it was in the dead of night, and there I could pick out where Gaza is, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem. So it's an opportunity for people to see themselves and to really use that as an opportunity to experience the world in that way and feel closer to one another. That's part of it.

[Liam Kennedy]

And from what I'm seeing, we're seeing an orbital view right now. I don't think it's Long beach, but I am pretty certain that my boat looks better from. From 200 miles up than it does from 10 people.

[Rod Pyle]

Probably does, yeah.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah. Rod's boat, my old apartment, they're like five blocks away from each other.

[Liam Kennedy]

Okay. Just so people understand, he was not living in my boat. Well, you might have been. I didn't own it then, but. So ISS above is a Raspberry PI computer that you customized, is that right?

[Rod Pyle]

Yes, that is exactly it.

[Liam Kennedy]

So is that part of the chain that gets me this imagery, or is it strictly what gives me the data about what's going on?

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, ISS above is just sort of an adjacent thing to what send us. It really is that the ISS above is my origin story of how I got here. Without that and without what it is that Leo did and others at TWIT did, I've got to say, I don't think I'd be here.

[Liam Kennedy]

Yay, twit.

[Rod Pyle]

That really is. Honest to goodness, I love the people of TWIT and all of the viewers that sort of really made this possible. It's just a little device that allowed me to follow my passion of having the public be aware of every time the astronauts were above. And in fact, it's coming sort of full circle because NASA's now invited me to create something called the ISS above experience @ Space Symposium.

[Tarek Malik]

Hey.

[Liam Kennedy]

Oh, how cool.

[Rod Pyle]

So at Space Symposium, you know, big, big space conference happening in Colorado. Yeah, the one in Colorado Springs.

[Tarek Malik]

It's the biggest one. Yeah.

[Rod Pyle]

Because what is happening is November of this year is the 25th anniversary when astronauts have been living permanently on the space station. And my device is all about letting you know every time those people are above. So ISS Above Experience will be showing that, but the SEN related part of that is that the live video feed switches from NASA's to SENS and such. So it will sort of be that opportunity. So you can, you know, I'm not trying to plug ISS above here in the least, but obviously if you go to issabove.com, you'll see how you can get one. There's ways to get the download image. If you're a Raspberry PI geek, which I know a fair proportion of twit folks are into, you can build your own own as well.

[Liam Kennedy]

Okay, so the real question though is, could somebody like Tarik do it?

[Tarek Malik]

I don't know.

[Liam Kennedy]

If you handed me a Raspberry PI, I'd sit there and start drooling like my Labrador looking at a mill phone, you know.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah. So the good thing is it comes in in a box that is just. I'm trying to sort of show this over here. It comes just in a box with all the instructions. You can have it up and running in five minutes.

[Tarek Malik]

Oh, right.

[Rod Pyle]

So that version, you just plug it in and away you go. You configure the location in a browser and then at that point it's flashing, lighting up every time the space station is above your horizon. Where are you, Tarek, by the way? What part of the.

[Tarek Malik]

So, yeah, we're based in New York City, but I'm based outside, like just a little bit outside in New Jersey.

[Rod Pyle]

Okay. Yeah, so I'll be there in April because I've the company ARM, which is the big $50 billion company that's behind the ARM processor chip, which is in every Raspberry PI, almost every phone, all of our computers, all of that stuff often has ARM processors. They're in our payload on the space station. I'll have you know as well, they sponsored an ISS above into almost Every Queen's public library.

[Tarek Malik]

Oh wow.

[Rod Pyle]

So if you, if you ever go into a Queen's public library, they now have ISS aboves in every location there actually over 50, so it's not, it's not all of them, but it's almost all of them. So I'll be visiting because they have Space Week in April.

[Tarek Malik]

We have to go to that.

[Rod Pyle]

Lots of stuff going on, astronauts coming by and then I'll just be making their parents. So I look forward to. Hopefully we can meet up when, when I'm in town.

[Tarek Malik]

I'm always, always.

[Liam Kennedy]

Before you jump into your next question, we got a question from out of Sync on the Discord, which is part of the club for people who don't know if you joined, you could be asking questions too. Out of Sync says. So how about a live 180 degree VR stream? Yeah, that's a bit of a step up.

[Rod Pyle]

I know, I know. So for those of you who are interested, bandwidth is the number one resource that is really critical to what we do. So the space station has about 600 megabits of total bandwidth available and that's used for every purposes. Our bandwidth allocation goes through the ESA European Space Agency's allocation and we have a top limit of about 10 meg. We tend to stream at 8 mega. To do a full 360 VR you need a lot more. Yeah, that's part of what's there. But talking about development further on, what we've got going on here is we already are on the bench doing designs on the next version. So don't just think about. We've got six cameras, double up of everything. Think of like three times as many cameras for our next, next version. And yes, steerable. We did steerable before on the first hosted payload. We're going to be providing lots more opportunities there. We're also looking to be in other locations on the space station. And then everyone, hands up if you've heard the story. The space station's going to be deorbited.

[Tarek Malik]

That's my next question.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, so yeah, we're definitely, we have our sights on every other location you can imagine. Everyone you know about and including some others that you probably don't know about yet. So yeah, excuse me, when you say.

[Liam Kennedy]

Every location, you mean like what Voyager Space is doing what?

[Rod Pyle]

You got it? Yeah.

[Tarek Malik]

Orbital. The moon, right.

[Rod Pyle]

What about the moon? The moon, exactly.

[Liam Kennedy]

Yeah.

[Rod Pyle]

So just on a call with the NASA Artemis folks just last week. So yeah, we want to be everywhere we. But we want to be everywhere for you, for the public that's what it's all, it's all about. You know, there's an art and science available with what we're doing. There's something that's very nourishing to humanity is what we're really all about. And yes, we need to make some money.

[Tarek Malik]

You know, I guess you kind of talked a bit about what my, probably my last question was going to be is that, you know, the name of, well, of your invention obviously is ISS above the send cameras are on the ISS. The ISS turns 25 in November of, you know, crude spaceflight. NASA's put kind of an end date in the 2030s ish. You know those cameras, unless you're going to send astronauts to go get them or a robotic arm to pack it away, are going to have a fiery grave, you know, in the south in the center of the Pacific Ocean. And so I'm curious like where you want to see the NEXCEND camera? Is it, is it on a private space station? Is it on a free flying spacecraft like we see with SpaceX and Fram2 launching in a few days, you know, into an orbit we've never seen before with human eyes, you know, that sort of thing. Thing, what is that stepping stone like? Because it sounds like you have a very flexible payload box that you can put in different places.

[Rod Pyle]

Yeah, that's exactly the story of sen. You know, our systems are not so expensive that we'll be, you know, crying ourselves to sleep when the space station. I'll be crying myself to sleep every night when the station isn't there. Just let everyone know that. But yeah, there's some things that I probably can't talk about in terms of how it might go. But yeah, everyone's in the same boat. We have experiments on the space station. What happens? Do they just, do we just throw them away or will there be an approach to transfer them from one station to another? That's cool, that's one thing. But yeah, so it is special to be on a place where human beings are. So undoubtedly that's what a big part of my driver is, where humans are. We want to be the eyes of those humans in a way for the public. So everywhere that can go is an important one. But we're also working. We had our first ETV A1. We're looking to future versions that will be in Leo and in other places. So Cisluna we want to be located conveniently where there's ability to get lots of bandwidth. So like intuitive machines, they have the contract for the lunar data Network, and that will be done through cislunar orbiting spacecraft, for instance. So. Heads up, Intuitive machines. We're in contact with some folks, just.

[Liam Kennedy]

So it's made clear. Excuse me. When he says leo, he means low Earth orbit, not our leo. We don't want to put cameras in inside our leo. That's up to the doctor. Okay, tar. Sorry, go ahead.

[Tarek Malik]

I have a suggestion. Maybe this is my last suggestion, but, you know, a pretty awesome camera system with live streaming. And, you know, when. When it comes time, if it's at all physically possible, I think it would be really awesome to be able to, like, you know, have. Have the arm. You're. You're live streaming the. The views of Earth and space. You know, if there's a way to keep that powered while you pluck it off. Bartholomew, pop it on like a tug, and then it like, jetties on to the next private space, but it's all live streaming at the same time. And then you pop it on a private space station, get it on another tug, get it out to assist lunar space. You've got one camera system. That's the whole journey in one long arc. I think that would be amazing, right?

[Liam Kennedy]

It costs about 10,000 times as much as setting up a new camera.

[Tarek Malik]

I'm just. I'm just spitballing, man, okay? The guy started live streaming in the 90s, and now he's beaming 4K from sports space, you know, so.

[Liam Kennedy]

That's true. That's a very good point. Well, you gotta.

[Tarek Malik]

You gotta dream it to win it, right?

[Rod Pyle]

You absolutely do. I had no idea that this was, you know, pinch, pinch me, you know, Is this real life is what it comes down to. And, you know, so I take exactly everything you're doing the way that you were thinking that could go. Tarik is a perfect way to think about all of this. So. So if we can do it, we'll do it.

[Tarek Malik]

Great.

[Liam Kennedy]

That's probably the nicest thing anybody said to Tarek in a couple of decades.

[Tarek Malik]

That's right, because the only person I talked to is Rod.

[Liam Kennedy]

Exactly. Oh, you poor devil. Hey, Liam, I want to thank you for this. It's been a delight having you. It's been something we've wanted to do for quite a while. And whenever you get your next upgrade, update, change, notion, whatever it is, please reach out to us because we'd love to have you back. So I want to thank you and everybody for joining us for episode 154, what We like to call the View From Above. Liam, you mentioned send TV already. Are there Other places we should check out online to see what you're up to and buy your product.

[Rod Pyle]

Oh, yeah. So ISS above. Go to ISS above and follow SEN Obviously on all the socials, you'll see the amazing content going there, going up there every day. And when you look at those clips, they pretty much have come from. For me, sitting here in this very place, commanding our payload to capture those views and make them available to you.

[Liam Kennedy]

Mission Control, Temecula. I like it. Tarek, where can we find you orbiting these days?

[Tarek Malik]

Well, you can find [e-mail] as always this weekend I'm watching the solar eclipse. It's gonna be great. Also playing some Fortnite. It is Fortnite OG season three and there are not enough astronauts in it. But what are you gonna do so you can find me there at spacetron plays on YouTube.

[Liam Kennedy]

Partial solar eclipse.

[Tarek Malik]

It's not partial. All right, let's all marvel at the fact that the moon crosses in front of the star that gives us life. Right. Let's not diminish.

[Liam Kennedy]

I'm just saying I don't want people standing outside looking up saying, where the heck is it? He said it was going to be an eclipse.

[Tarek Malik]

Yeah.

[Rod Pyle]

So if I jump in here, Space station, can the space station see it? That's a question I'm asked. Is it going to be visible in our cameras and unfortunately not. The space station is nowhere near the orbital sequence. It's not taking it there. But it could have been. And if so, we may have been able to catch the Earth shadow, the moon shadow in the docking cam, if we were going past Canada, because Canada is where it is, the best place. That's where the maximum partial Canada is.

[Tarek Malik]

And I guess bits of Europe are gonna be able to see some of the faces, but you gotta be high north Canada to see it.

[Liam Kennedy]

And just a reminder, because we always do it for people, if you're gonna look at the partial eclipse, the best way is to use a pinhole and project on the ground or go stand under a leafy tree. You'll see a hundred little partially eclipsed suns down on the ground, which is one of the coolest ways. If you're going to look directly at it, you got to use eclipse glasses that are sold by a reputable vendor because anything else will ruin your eyes. And take it from me, you don't want cataracts at the age of 45, which I had. And you can find me at pilebooks.com [e-mail] or running things behind the curtain. At the national space [e-mail] now remember, you can always drop us a line at Twistwit TV. That's Twis Twit TV. We love hearing from you and either Tarek or I, probably me, will answer your emails. Every single one. But Tarek does jump in every now and then when he's not crushed with work to do. New episodes of this podcast publish every Friday in your favorite podcaster. So make sure to subscribe, tell your friends, give us thumbs up, smile, send money, whatever you want to do. We appreciate it all. And don't forget, you know it's a lonely world without having you in Club Twit. It takes a lot of work for people besides Tarek and me, the whole staff to send out these podcasts and get all these electrons moving your direction well, or in some cases radio waves, whatever the case may be. So please consider joining Club twit for just $7 a month month. It will get you access to the video stream of the show ad free and it will help keep us in business and bringing you these fine products and really cool people like Liam, because that's what we live to do. Finally, you can follow the Twittech Podcast network at Twit on Twitter and on Facebook and Twit TV on Instagram. Liam, thank you very much and Godspeed to you and all your efforts. You're doing saintly work there. We appreciate it and we'll see everybody next week. No matter how much spare time you have, TWiT TV has the perfect tech news format for your schedule. Stay up to date with everything happening in tech and get tech news your.

[Tarek Malik]

Way with TWiT TV.

[Liam Kennedy]

Start your week with this Week in Tech for an in depth, comprehensive dive into the top stories every week. And for a midweek tech boost, Tech News Weekly brings you concise quick updates with the journalists breaking the news. Whether you need just the nuts and bolts or want the full analysis, stay informed with TWiT TV's perfect pairing of tech news programs.

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[Rod Pyle]

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[Liam Kennedy]

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[Tarek Malik]

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