Great American Eclipse To Be Livestreamed From 100,000 Feet

During the summer of 2017, people from all over the U.S. will be able to witness the grand celestial event of a total solar eclipse that is going to occur after nearly a century. Nicknamed the Great American Eclipse, the phenomenon will give a rare chance to millions of Americans to see the Sun covered by the Moon in totality on Aug. 21.

According to a Huffington Post report, as if the phenomenon was not exciting enough, now the American space agency, NASA, and video platform Stream have just gone ahead and raised the stakes. It has been announced that the two organizations will be partnering to livestream the whole solar eclipse from a maximum altitude of 100,000 feet above the surface of the Earth.

Though the specific details are still not known, what is clear is that the megacast -- as it has been termed by NASA -- will be backed by a network of over 50 high-altitude balloons attached with video equipment. This will be the first time that a total solar eclipse will be livestreamed from such great height. The balloons will be released from multiple locations by volunteer science teams and universities, in cooperation with various NASA programs, all around the country.

Stream has even gone as far as to compare the viewership of the event, in terms of numbers of spectators, to the broadcast of NASA’s Curiosity rover landing on Mars in 2012. The descent of Curiosity had more than 100 million views across multiple platforms.

Incidentally, the footage taken with the 50 high-altitude balloons will be augmented with NASA’s live coverage from its space-based solar observatories and various other telescopes located on the planet.

Apart from giving unprecedented view of the solar eclipse, the high-altitude livestream will also eliminate the risks posed by bad weather. It is because the balloons will fly high above clouds that could mess up the show.