The official release hasn’t gone out yet but last night during MSNBC’s “Return To Flight” special, Chris Jansing announced that she will host a follow up special this Sunday concerning America’s Astronauts. Few details on the special were revealed but a part of it was aired last night when Chris Jansing interviewed several astronauts from past space missions from Johnson Space Center. ICN assumes the scheduled timing of this Sunday special will be 8 pm, though today’s scrubbed launch may push that back until the Shuttle indeed lifts off if it can’t lift off before this weekend.

Tuesday’s numbers showed another FOX win. FOX averaged 2,000,000 viewers for Prime Time. The 8pm hour was extremely competitive between Grace and Zahn with both racking up big numbers (Grace won) and leaving MSNBC’s “Return To Flight” special in the dust. This is all the more amazing because Hardball turned in some good numbers at 420,000 and yet half those people tuned somewhere else rather than watch The Shuttle special.
(more…)

As noted earlier FOX’s coverage will be hosted by Shepard Smith live from Kennedy Space Center. Correspondents Jamie Colby and Rick Leventhal will also be reporting from there. Analysis will come from former NASA astronaut Thomas Jones. Phil Keating will be reporting from Johnson Space Center in Texas, where the control of the entire mission will be handled from the moment the Shuttle clears the tower. Both Studio B and The FOX Report will be coming from Kennedy Space Center.

In an article in today’s Galveston Daily News, TJ Aulds writes about CNN’s anchor for today’s Shuttle Launch; Miles O’Brien…

Today’s scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery marks not only the return to flight for NASA. It also marks the return of the man who in the space community is considered the nation’s space reporter.

It could be argued that not since Walter Cronkite, has any single reporter been so closely identified with manned space flight than Miles O’Brien. The longtime CNN anchor and reporter makes no bones about it, he has a passion for the space program and for NASA.

….

“I want people to remember, this is risky business,” O’Brien said. “NASA made it seem routine. I made it seem routine, and it just simply is not routine.

“And I want people to understand that these (astronauts) are true explorers. To me that is an amazing story.”

ICN has nothing but respect for O’Brien’s passion for all things space as ICN shares similar passions and it’s not his fault that the article puts him on a pedestal with the opening two graphs. But the fact remains that there are other journalists out there who have covered space longer both in print and television, some since the start of space flight. O’Brien’s credentials are impressive in their own right so the spin isn’t necessary…