Major players of Luxembourg’s space, communications and broadcasting industry have joined forces to support people around the world in the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and help them cope with self-isolation and quarantine.
Asteroid Day, the official United Nations‘ day of global awareness and education about asteroids, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are setting up #SpaceConnectsUs as a virtual town hall meeting with astronauts, scientists and celebrities to talk about life in confinement and isolation, sending a message of hope, trust in science and mutual encouragement for everyone currently faced with the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.
#SpaceConnectsUs offers remote sessions with astronauts and guests from all over the world who speak to children, young adults and their families and friends about their experience and techniques in confined places and what else space may provide to help, their trust in science and the sources of their inspiration. The program is non-commercial and 100% for free and digital.
It will be available in five languages (English, French, German, Italian and Dutch) on www.asteroidday.org, www.spaceconnects.us and www.esa.int today, Thursday, 26 March, 16.00 – 21.00 CET. Broadcasters and direct-to-home satellite users can pick it up from the ASTRA 1M satellite with the technical details: Service Name: SpaceConnectsUs -- Service ID: 4410 -- Transponder: 1.028 -- Satellite: ASTRA 1M Wide Beam -- Orbital Post:19.2 East -- Downlink Frequency: 11626.500 MHz -- Polarization: Vertical -- Modulation: DVB-S QPSK -- FEC: 5/6 -- SR:22.000MBaud.
Participating Astronauts
● Tim Peake (ESA)
● Alexander Gerst (ESA)
● Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA)
● Tom Jones (NASA)
● Dorin Prunariu (Romanian)
● Thomas Reiter (ESA)
● Nicole Stott (NASA)
● Matthias Maurer (ESA)
● Frank De Winne (ESA)
● Andre Kuipers (ESA)
Celebrities and scientists
● Mayim Bialik (Big Bang)
● Murad Osmann (Photographer)
● Alison Pill (StarTrek Picard)
● Paulina Chávez ( Actor)
● Angélique Kidjo ( singer )
● Olivia Newton-John (singer)
● Brian Blessed (actor)
● Jan Wörner (ESA Director General)
Asteroid Day (www.asteroidday.org) is set up by the Luxembourg-based global Asteroid Foundation, with the strong support of the Grand Duchy and its Luxembourg Space Agency LSA (www.space-agency.public.lu) . Broadcasting Center Europe (www.bce.lu) and ENEX (www.enex.lu), both part of the RTL Group, will support the production of the streaming before handing it to SES (www.ses.com) which will broadcast it live in High Definition (HD) via an ASTRA satellite across Europe. The development of the digital content of the program is supported by FilmsUnited (www.filmsunited.co) and the international communication campaign by waveL communications (www.wave-l.com).
