Who says HD must be confined to this stratosphere? BitGravity, a provider of next-generation content delivery networks for interactive broadcasting, is jumping for joy after being selected by SpaceX to provide "live streaming video for flights of the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 launch vehicles, as well as from each of SpaceX's initial demonstration flights, for the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program." Late last month, BitGravity was responsible for providing live HD-quality footage of the Falcon 1 rocket on its flight into Earth's orbit, and apparently, knocking a home run on the first at bat does good things for your company.

In case you missed the Discovery Channel's "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" and are too frugal to buy the Blu-ray boxed set, NASA TV will be airing two hours of historical footage in HD next week. It's a small subset of the 150-hours of footage that made the leap to HD for the Discovery Channel's production, but like we said, it's free. Honestly, some of the footage drawn from the older end of the 50-year span was less than stellar in picture quality, but that's a limitation of the source material. The special will air on August 8, 11 and 12 at 9AM EST. If your carrier sends you the bits, let us know how it looks in the comments below.

Never mind those fancy BD-R critters, how's about a 42GB DVD? Researchers with a good deal more intelligence than us over at Tohoku University have reportedly figured out a way to "multiply the amount of data that can be stored on a DVD or CD by 9." Based on our best guess at translating a foreign language (we kid... sort of), the achievement was realized by shaping the pits on a DVD's surface like Vs, essentially making the disc more capacious in the process. Unfortunately, said project will probably never see any mainstream attention, as existing DVD / CD players won't recognize the malformed media, and worse still, the process can't be applied to Blu-ray Discs.

[Via CrunchGear]

Discovery's look back at the birth of NASA is upon us, and USA Today has more information on what we can expect from the six part series. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions will air over the next three Sundays at 9 p.m., complete with film restored to high definition that will surely reveal more than old SD broadcasts were able to handle. Narrated by Gary Sinise, there's also an interview with Neil Armstrong about walking on the moon and the troubled Gemini 8 mission. For a look at what we did before landing on Mars, hit the read link and then check Discovery tonight at 9 p.m.

Sure now we get live HD from the ISS like it's nothing, but much of the last half century of space exploration has never been seen by most in anything other than grainy analog broadcasts. That'll change in June once When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions debuts on Discovery Channel, drawing from more than 150 hours of NASA footage, called a cross between The Right Stuff and EHD fave Planet Earth. The Orlando Sentinel mentions the new doc is part of a push to ensure funding to speed further space explorations, as long as they provide more great HD opportunities we're all for it. Look for the Blu-ray boxed set July 24 for $79.95.

Late last year, we sat in awe peeping the pictures of Earth captured by the KAGUYA satellite, but we're fairly certain we've spotted Engadget HQ in the latest grabs. All kidding aside, the latest HD Earthrise movie is even more desirable than the last due to this one being a "full" Earthrise, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency isn't hesitating to pat itself on the back for snagging such an accomplishment. Check out the read link for more pictures, video and an explanation of how the whole thing went down.

A 24 hour concert it's not, but NASA's celebrating Earth Day in its own way, airing an hour of HD footage collected from various trips in space on NASA TV. A silent edition of the broadcast hit Friday morning, which will repeat between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Monday April 21, and on repeat from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22 featuring commentary from NASA scientist Dr. Justin Wilkinson. You can catch the stream online, or the NASA TV channel if you have it, we hear that in HD you can totally see your house from there.

[Via Sun Herald]

Hot on the heels of the successful launch of DirecTV 10, it seems that the next satellite has already been dated for takeoff. According to Spaceflight Now, the "Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket will carry the DirectTV 11 direct-to-home television broadcast satellite" into orbit, where it will then be used to disseminate HDTV broadcasts to subscribers. The calendar was updated on July 15th, and current estimates peg the launch to take place sometime in December. You won't find us complaining about a delightful Christmas gift from DirecTV -- in the form of more HD channels, of course.

[Via SatelliteGuys]

Now that Dell's riding high on the Blu-ray bandwagon, what more could you ask for when picking up that now-BD-equipped M1710? How about a free flick from Mark Cuban? While we can hear the groaning in the back, ole Mark has decided to plug his very own HDNet by partnering with Dell and tossing in a free Blu-ray title -- "HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission" -- with each XPS M1710 notebook. Although further details on the deal weren't readily available, it was implied that future Blu-ray equipped machines would also grace buyers with free BD titles of Cuban's choosing, and while you might not agree with Mark's antics, you can't really complain with free.

Don't forget, this is the morning of the live HDTV broadcast from the International Space Station, being shown exclusively in Japan on NHK and elsewhere on Discovery HD Theater. The Sony HD camera was donated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), so that we can get the best look at space available without heading to the local IMAX theater. Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and engineer Mikhail Tyurin will host the event, while third crewmember Thomas Reiter operates the camera. Hopefully this is the first of many live broadcasts, which are preferred because it saves money from transporting extra weight in the form of tapes to and from the ISS. The broadcast kicks off at 11:30 am EST and will re-air at 9 p.m. and midnight.

Considering Blockbuster is already trialing HD DVD and Blu-ray rentals in brick-and-mortar locations, Netflix's full backing of the formats, and the record-setting performance of Paramount's M:I III, we'd say that opening up a bit more shelf space for next-gen flicks is a fairly intelligent business move. The Video Buyers Group's 1,700 members will launch HD DVD and Blu-ray sections this month in anticipation of holiday sales, and numerous Targets are going out of their way to not only provide easier access to next-gen store displays, but to educate consumers on the technology behind the buzz as well. Reportedly, the bullseye-clad stores will boast "signage highlighting key differences between the formats," including clear alerts that signify what hardware is necessary to play back the snazzy HD discs. So when perusing the (presumably crowded) aisles this holiday season for those must-have titles, don't be alarmed to see next-generation setups placed front and center in the electronics department -- well, behind the Wii and Playstation 3 goods, of course.

Once again, HDNet is bring us great coverage of the Space Shuttle Discovery's launch. This is going to start at 10:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow, July 1st. You really need to watch this. Mark Cuban's HDNet does a fantastic job making one of the most boring events absolutly spectacular. They use 14 high-def cameras to cover almost every aspect of the launch including the suiting up of the astronauts at 10:00. Greg Dobbs is hosting the even but only to a point. HDNet has a long tradition of not interrupting the viewers experience. This means there isn't some network tool throwing in his two cents every few seconds. HDNet broadcasts the natural sounds of the area along with NASAs messages from mission control. It just makes for an better overall experience.

You have got to check it out.

NASA and Mark Cuban have hooked up to make sure every shuttle launch and landing at Kennedy Space Center is filmed and broadcast in high definition through 2010. The press release doesn't mention if this is an exclusive agreement or not, but they will also be distributing the HD feed to other networks so whenever you do start getting your news in high definition (if you don't already), your shuttle clips should be that way also.

Shuttle launches are still a pretty cool event to watch, and its only logical they'd be best to watch in high definition, finally we'll have some footage beyond whatever IMAX movies are on this week.