Content on the NASA HD channel will include live coverage of space shuttle and other spacecraft launches, “ISS Update” — a daily program covering the activities of the on-orbit International Space Station crews, and video footage of the Earth shot by space station crews and NASA satellites.

Additional content to run on the channel includes media conferences, lectures, satellite interviews and other special events.

NASA did not provide specifics on which television providers will carry the channel. For NASA TV programming check out their website listings: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html.

Has NASA HD been added to your channel lineup? Let us know!

The documentary is also available as a Quicktime download in 1080i from the NASA website. The 536 Mb video runs 15 minutes, formatted at 1280 x 1080 using H.264 compression. The video is a bit jaggy — especially the transitions — suggest viewing at half size on your PC. Audio is 48.000 kHz in 16-bit (Little Endian).

“Hubble: 20 Years of Discovery” celebrates the achievements of one of the most popular and important scientific instruments in the history of exploration. Narrated by actor and writer Brent Spiner, this special video presentation takes viewers on a journey back in time and into the farthest reaches of the cosmos.”

“Hubble: 20 Years of Discovery” is also viewable on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Narrated by Oprah Winfrey (as opposed to the naturalist David Attenborough when aired across the pond), the first part of the series, “Challenges of Life,” provides an overview of the survival strategies developed by the various life forms on Earth.  While those with a flat-Earth mentality won’t appreciate the BBC’s Darwinian take on it all, the documentary is a showcase for real natural science and doesn’t flinch from the dark side of nature… the beauty of life and the grim finality of death are show in equal measure, though the first episode mainly focuses on the utter determination of all living things to just simply stay alive.  If you loved what BBC/Discovery did with Planet Earth, you won’t want to miss Life.

HD-Report will have a full review of the first episodes of the series soon, stayed tuned!

LIFE took four years to complete, and was filmed entirely in high-definition over 3000 days on all continents. The goal of the BBC/Discovery Channel production was to explore extraordinary animal behavior when faced with life or death. Topics for the series include: The Challenges of Life, Reptiles and Amphibians, Mammals, Fish, Birds, Insects, Hunters and Hunted, Creatures of the Deep, Plants, Primates, and The Making of Life.

LIFE is narrated by none other than Oprah Winfrey, and tells 130 stories of the natural world in extreme survival conditions. 54 of the stories have never been seen on TV before. Some television firsts include footage of dolphins creating circles of mud to entrap fish — a method called ‘mudringing’, greater bulldog bats hunting fish filmed at 2000 frames-per-second, and a pebble toad’s escape from a tarantula by bouncing like a rubber ball down a mountain.

Read more from the source.

The mission of Endeavour and her crew will be to deliver the last connecting module to expand the International Space Station – the Italian-built “Tranquility” node. “Tranquility” will provide additional room for many of the station’s life support and environmental control systems. “Tranquility” is among four additional modules on the station: the Destiny laboratory, the Quest airlock, the Unity node and the Harmony node.

“Everything thus far is going exceeding well… we’re right on schedule where we’re supposed to be and we’ll continue to work through the day on our preparations,” said NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding

UPDATE: Because of weather the launch was postponed until Monday, Feb. 8 at 4:14 a.m. Eastern Time.

UPDATE: The launch was success on Feb.8. Shuttle launch director Michael Leinbach called the lift-off “one of the smoothest ones ever.”

The remaining missions:

STS-130
Launch Target: Feb. 7, 2010
at 4:39 a.m. EST
Shuttle: Endeavour
Duration: 13 days

STS-131
Launch Target: March 18, 2010
at 1:34 p.m. EDT
Shuttle: Discovery
Duration: 13 days

STS-132
Launch Target: May 14, 2010
at 2:28 p.m. EDT
Shuttle: Atlantis
Duration: 11 days

STS-134
Launch Target: July 29, 2010
at 7:51 a.m. EDT
Shuttle: Endeavour
Duration: 10 days

STS-133
Launch Target: Sept. 16, 2010
at 11:57 a.m. EDT
Shuttle: Discovery
Duration: 8 days

The crew of the Endeavour are on a 16-day mission to work on constructing the International Space Station. The six-member crew will join 7 other astronauts already on the Space Station, and make it the first time the station has been fully manned.

The goal of mission STS-127 is to finish assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex, an external shelf that will be used to expose materials to space environment. The construction will require 5 spacewalks.

NASA’s last couple of shuttle launches have suffered delays, so here’s hoping this one goes on as scheduled.

NASA is providing the HD feed on Channel 105 and will broadcast the shorts every hour on the hour. The broadcasts are also available on the NASA Television Public and Media Channels VideoFile in standard-definition. More information can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 will carry a crew of seven on an 11-day mission to visit the Hubble space telescope to perform several upgrades. The upgrades, including replacement of two instruments and repairing of two inactive ones, will allow the telescope to function for at least another five years.

You can watch coverage of the event on Nasa TV throughout the weekend including the arrival of the crew, countdown briefings, launch pad structure retraction and other events leading up to Monday’s scheduled launch. Live television coverage of the actual launch will also be broadcast on HDNet which will start at 1:30 PM ET (10:30 a.m. PT) on Monday. HDNet will run an encore presentation of the launch on Tuesday, May 12 at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Stevens got his nickname while working for the South African army as a “snake remover”  He later studied to become a qualified herpetologist, and went on to take up the position of Curator of Herpetology at the Nordharzer Schlangenfarm in Germany. Since then he has been making films and photographing wildlife throughout the world.

Stevens’ shows, also known as “Austin Stevens: Most Dangerous” and “Austin Stevens: Snakemaster” have already been airing in the UK. No premiere date has announced yet for HDNet. Stay tuned for more info.

Here’s a link to more previews.

STS-119 will deliver the Starboard 6 truss segment, giving the station its fourth and final set of power-generating solar wings. The S6 truss, with its set of large U.S.-constructed solar arrays, will complete the backbone of the station and provide one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew of six.

HDNet is partnered with NASA to present all live shuttle launches through 2010.

The NASA HD highlights will be broadcast on Friday, Aug. 8, Monday, Aug. 11, and Tuesday, Aug. 12, from 9 to 11 a.m. EDT on a special feed from NASA TV. The highlights also will be broadcast on standard definition on NASA TV’s media channel.

The special high-definition broadcast will include content from over 150 hours of historical film footage that was converted to HD under a partnership with NASA and The Discovery Channel. Much of the converted footage was used in The Discovery Channel’s recently acclaimed series, “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions” which aired on The Discovery Channel.

NASA TV’s Public, Education and Media channels are available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal via satellite on AMC 6, Transponder 17C in continental North America. In Alaska and Hawaii, they’re available on AMC 7, Transponder 18C.

Call your television provider for more information on how you can get NASA TV. Or, if you have your own satellite visit the NASA website for more info on receiving the transmissions.

Although previous scheduling and the Discovery Channel website has the premiere of “In The Shadow Of The Moon” scheduled for Sunday, June 29, ads running last night during “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions” state the movie will premiere tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

“In the Shadow of the Moon” is told by the surviving crew members from every Apollo mission. The documentary, an award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, combines the interviews with stunning historical NASA footage all in HD.

Check your guide listings to be sure of time. My Verizon FiOS has it scheduled for both 7 pm and 10 pm PT, rather than the 9 pm ET noted in the advertisements.

The HD imagery, taken by astronauts, will start airing on Friday, April 18th. The hour-long broadcast will feature silent Earth views from the perspective of shuttle trips and the International Space Station.

Monday and Tuesday’s airings will feature discussions of the views with Dr. Justin Wilkinson, a scientist with NASA’s Crew Earth Observations Office.

Astronauts will take… to the Space Station, a module that is the start of the Japanese-built Kibo laboratory, and a robotics system from the Canadian Space Agency’s two-armed robotic system named “Dextre.”

This will mark NASA’s 25th United States mission to the International Space Station. Coverage of the event will be hosted by World Report Correspondent Greg Dobbs.