We actually have 4 different shows we produce and with it 4 different sets of graphics. You’re probably most familiar with our two most popular shows, the weekly live show and the SpacePods. But for years now we have also produced launch events such as space shuttle launches as well as the after-show show known now as After Dark.

Back at the beginning of the year I set out to make it very easy to tell when a video was being produced by Spacevidcast. This would help viewers understand where the video was coming from. Is it an official NASA video? It is something community related? Who made this and what is it for? That’s how the simplified lower third graphics came to be. The bug (which is TV term for the shows logo that is always on the screen) had expanded to not just be out blue circle logo, but also have the name of the show and the date always burned on the screen. This may annoy a few people, but years from now when you’re searching archives you’ll very easily be able to tell when a video was produced, what show it was for and what it is about just by looking at the lower left side of the screen. This design did create a challenge though. Unlike in years past I wanted all of the graphics to both look alike as well as give a visual cue as to which show you’re actually watching. Those two things sound like they are diametrically opposing. How can you have graphics that look the same yet convey completely different things? The answer can be found in the FedEx logo.

Ever see a FedEx ground and air truck drive by at the same time? The FedEx logo is almost exactly the same. Same font, same spacing and if you’re not paying attention it would look nearly identical. But the FedEx ground logo is purple and green. The FedEx air logo is purple and red. FedEx critical is purple and blue. In fact there are a bunch of different colored logos that mean different things. The brilliance behind it is that you may not have noticed that each logo is a different color directly, but sub-consciously you know each package was sent a different way based on the color you see. The brand stays the same, the visual impact stays the same, but a simple tweak in the color and you can change the meaning of the logo itself.

FedEx isn’t the only company to do this. When apple switched from the single multi-colored logo to the one color glossy logo they actually switched to a series of one-color glossy logos. A red apple meant AppleCare. A blue apple meant consumer/retail. A grey apple meant corporate/enterprise. And so forth and so on. Apple has grown quite a bit larger over the last few years and with that growth they seem to have dropped the colored logos. But the idea is still brilliant.

Each Spacevidcast show does the same thing as FedEx and Apple. We have a different colored graphic for the bug, or main logo of each show. The graphics themselves are identical, but the colors shift slightly. You can see how each show looks by the graphic below, but the way it works out is: SpacePods are purple to match the open, live shows are yellow to offset the blue of the info graphic, After Dark is black because, well, it’s after dark and live launch coverage is a medium grey color to allow the green, yellow and red status graphics to stand out more so you know what is happening with the launch.

And now you know one of our little secrets that we employ to try and make your life easier. You may not have ever directly noticed the color coding before, but it has probably triggered something in your brain that lets you know exactly what you’re looking at and what you should expect. Some of you may have noticed the colors but not known why we did that or why each color was chosen. The best part is that this is just one insight in to our graphic design. There are a lot of elements that went in to what seem like pretty simple banners: why the logo is placed where it is, why there is a blank bar under the graphic and of course why the graphics are translucent now. Each item was designed, implemented, tweaked, re-implemented, tweaked some more and implemented again.

Hey, every pixel counts!

Journalists that were present on Oct. 7, for the delivery of STS-133’s payload were treated with the sights and sounds of Hollywood. Although these reporters and correspondents were kept on a very short leash the journalists present still managed to see the Autobots leader in truck mode, some actors in black soldier gear and some other tantalizing tidbits.

Numerous KSC employees have been selected to act as extras in the film. This serves the purpose of creating added realism to the film. Instead of training someone to “look” they know what they’re doing – more-likely-than-not those are the actual workers who do that job at America’s spaceport everyday. Outside of this film being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appear in a big budget summer blockbuster, it also provided an opportunity to rub shoulders with real and upcoming movie stars.

Already, John Turturro, the actor that portrays Agent Simmons in the film has been spotted wheeling in and around the Vehicle Assembly Building. Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky) has been seen with his character’s new love interest Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Carly) wandering the set.

There is however one star whose presence in the film has been kept top secret. Her identity however, is crucial to the plot of the film which is said to revolve around the space age. She is none other – than the space shuttle Discovery. That’s right, the orbiter that returned America to flight twice is revealed to actually be a transformer. That is at least what sources close to the film are saying. Michael bay, the film’s director, had his computer hacked during the filming of the first Transformers movie and has been notorious about spreading disinformation.

For NASA, having a motion picture film at KSC is a no-brainer. The Transformers series of movies is very popular with children and young people and this allows them to relay the NASA story to a whole new audience.

“This does give us the chance to open up what we do, real space exploration to audiences that we may not already have in a blockbuster film,” said NASA’s KSC News Chief Allard Beutel. “We’re talking about a worldwide audience and it’s a natural fit in the sense that it is sci-fi and real space exploration but also it allows us to get into the theatres and let kids see what we do, inspire them to look into what NASA is all about and reach an audience we may not normally reach.”

SpaceUp DC recap:  AWESOME!

• Tribble Fight/ Spork Incident
• archive
• Kickstarter shirt  VIDEO
• Announcement of SpaceUp San Diego 2 in Jan 2011 and SpaceUp MSP June 2011

Downloadable Shuttle Tribute Posters

• Large versions of these posters now hang in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA adds old photos to Flickr

• There are three sets of NASA photos now on Flickr: “Launch and Takeoff” set captures iconic spacecraft and aircraft taking flight. “Building NASA” spotlights ground-breaking events and the construction of some of NASA’s one-of-a-kind facilities. The “Center Namesakes” set features photos of the founders and figureheads of NASA’s 10 field centers.

MoonBots Comeptition has a winner

• More than 200 teams from 16 nations representing every continent but Antarctica registered for MoonBots.
• Team Landroids of New Jersey was named the grand winner of MoonBots. As part of their reward, the team will travel to LEGO’s world headquarters in BIllund, Denmark to tour the LEGO factory and meet with company executives.

• Second place was team Shadowed Craters of California
• Third place was claimed by Team Moonwalk, jointly of New Jersey and Connecticut. All three finalist teams also received registrations and start up kits to compete in the FIRST robotics competitions.

James Cameron and Zero-G

• Bid via eBay on a Zero-G flight with James Cameron
• All proceeds go to X PRIZE Foundation
• http://eBay.com/cameron
• Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, October 9, 2010
• bidding is over on Sept 3rd 2010
• James Cameron, Peter Diamandis and our very own @tim846

Vostochny Russian National Cosmodrome

• Two launch pads are planned for the spaceport, with appropriate infrastructure to prepare rockets for launch and assembly buildings. A special complex for training astronauts and medical examinations will also be built
• Will occupy an area ten times smaller than the Baikonur Cosmodrome and three times smaller than the Plesetsk Cosmodrome

The slow, steady roar of the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket reached out across the marshy landscape and reminded everyone in attendance that Cape Canaveral was a place written in rocket fire. This launch was historic in that it will see an upgrade in the capabilities of the United States and her allies.

The AEHF class of military satellites will replace the aging Milstar fleet. A single AEHF-class satellite will have greater capabilities than the entire Milstar fleet – combined. Currently, the AEHF fleet is expected to consist of three operational satellites and a fourth “spare” satellite.

The window for this morning’s launch opened at 7:07 a.m. (EDT) and extended two hours until 9:07 a.m. EDT. The U.S. Air Force worked through a number of issues including a problematic fairing control mechanism and a broke crane to get the satellite and its launch vehicle ready for launch.

Without a doubt the star of the show was R2 himself. The mostly-white android looked every bit the science-fiction meets science-fact as the imagery we have all seen on television and the internet have made him out to be. Robonaut 2 had originally been designed to only be a technology demonstrator, but engineers wanted to see how the system would operate in space and he was given a seat on the flight (albeit way in the back).

R2 was not the only horse at this rodeo however; NASA also had other flight hardware elements on display that will roar into orbit this fall. One of these was the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) that will be transported to the space station in Discovery’s payload bay (with R2 nestled inside). The PMM is in actuality the modified Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) and when the mission is completed the PMM will be left attached to the station.

Space Shuttle Discovery will carry Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) DragonEye (DE) relative navigation sensor on this mission. It is expected that this sensor will be installed about half a month later than originally planned due to a failure in the laser rod that was detected during testing. This item however was not on display at this event.

This could possibly be Discovery’s final flight (it has been mentioned that if there is an STS-135 – that Discovery might fly that mission). It will mark the 35th time that one of NASA’s orbiters has traveled to the orbiting laboratory. The crew consists of Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott.

This is hands down one of our more casual shows, so sit back, relax and enjoy.