I realise that, at this point, there are already far too many shows. Every channel, every streaming service is teeming with content demanding your attention, and there are simply too few hours in the day to watch them all. However, with that in mind, may I recommend a new show called Space Live? There’s only one episode. The only potential downside is that the episode literally lasts for ever.
Actually, that’s inaccurate. Space Live isn’t a show, it’s a channel. It launched on Wednesday morning, tucked away on ITVX, and consists only of live footage of Earth broadcast from the International Space Station. It’s beguiling to watch, especially for anyone who didn’t realise that a person can be awestruck and bored simultaneously.
It’s billed as a world first. ITV has partnered with British space media company Sen to use live 4K footage from its proprietary SpaceTV-1 video camera system, mounted on the International Space Station, giving us three camera views: one of the station’s docking ports, a horizon view able to show sunrises and storms, and a camera pointing straight down as the ISS passes across the planet. A tracker in the corner of the screen shows the live location of the ISS, while a real-time AI information feed provides facts about our geography and weather systems.
Space Live’s footage is a significant improvement on Nasa’s. Photograph: ITV
Of course, if you wanted to be picky, you could argue it isn’t exactly new. Nasa’s YouTube channel has been streaming live footage from the ISS for years, and uniformly draws an audience of a few thousand. But Space Live is, if nothing else, slightly snazzier. The footage is certainly nicer: at 8.30am on Wednesday, Space Live showed gorgeous images of the sun’s glare bouncing off the sea around the Bay of Biscay, while all Nasa could offer was a piece of cloth with the word “Flap” written on it. There’s even a soundtrack, a constant, soothing kind of hold music that loops and loops without ever becoming fully annoying. It’s an improvement, in other words.
And, at least for the first orbit, it is absolutely spellbinding. While not quite offering the overview effect – the cognitive shift felt by those who see Earth from space, leading to new perspectives about humanity and its place in the universe – it is still extremely humbling to see just how small the planet is. The time it took for the ISS to pass from south-east England (where I am) to war-ravaged Ukraine could be counted in seconds. And then on, over Asia towards Australia. There really is very little separating us at all.
Inevitably, as the station crosses the Earth, drifting endlessly between sunrise and sunset, your thoughts shift towards people you know from wherever it happens to be. There’s something palpably comforting about that.
However, God knows you can’t be awestruck for ever. And so it is with Space Live. Eventually the magic of the technology and the perspective and the beauty of our planet starts to wear off, and the experience becomes something akin to the map you end up staring at on a flight when you’ve run out of films to watch. Your attention starts to stray, and you realise that ITVX has other live channels to watch. One of them just shows Love Island. Another just shows Christmas films. And then you realise, with a slump, that the majesty of the only home we’ll ever know spinning silently in space has become just another content option, along with whichever ITV channel shows American Ninja Warrior Junior.
The views are simultaneously awe-inspiring and comforting. Photograph: ITV
But even though you won’t watch it all the time, it’s nice to know that Space Live is there. It isn’t the sort of thing you’d imagine they’d stick on the big screen in pubs – not unless people really start getting into going “Weeeeeey” every time they see the Ural River – but as something to have on in the background, it’s undeniably soothing. My guess is, for a dedicated few, the channel will be something they’ll keep on silently as they go about their day.
And, sure, that might not be why humanity first chose to embark upon the miraculous achievement of escaping the surly bonds of Earth – you’ll remember that Neil Armstrong pointedly did not say, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for the screensaver industry” – but, as an idea, Space Live can’t be faulted. I might not have it on all the time but, whenever I need to be reminded of who we are and how little separates us, I guarantee it will be my first port of call.
