NASA TV Show NASA 360 Garners Emmy and Other Awards

NASA TV show "NASA 360" has won an Emmy, one of the best-known awards in regional television. This is the fifth honor in recent months for the half-hour television program that explores NASA's contributions to everyday life.

"We're thrilled NASA 360 has won recognition within the video communications industry," said Michael Finneran, NASA 360 executive producer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "Its visual content and fast-paced feel are designed to appeal to a wide variety of audiences."

NASA developed the program in partnership with the National Institute of Aerospace, or NIA, also in Hampton. It is written, produced and edited by Mike Bibbo and Kevin Krigsvold of NIA.

"Kevin and Mike are masters at finding exciting topics for NASA 360 episodes and telling engaging stories through their editing," said Robert Lindberg, NIA president and executive director. "This latest honor is certainly well-deserved."

NASA 360 won its Emmy for non-news program editing from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which includes 29 media outlets in Washington, Virginia and Maryland. It was up against entries from Maryland Public Television and Colonial Williamsburg Productions.

The team won the editing Emmy for a segment about an all-electric racecar, the Wrightspeed X-1. NASA 360 had additional help in shooting that story from Langley videographer Gary Banziger. The segment aired in the show's second episode.

Johnny Alonso and Jennifer Pulley host NASA 360. Alonso has performed in movies and on television, including in "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill." Pulley has appeared in "NASA Connect" and in television commercials.

NASA 360's other honors in the last year include Videographer, Telly, Communicator and EMPixx awards. The team won a Videographer government/instructional "award of excellence" from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and a Communicator "award of distinction" from the International Academy of the Visual Arts.

In addition, NASA 360 picked up a special 30th anniversary gold Telly award given for outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, film and video productions, and web commercials, videos and films. It also received an EMPixx "platinum," a new honor awarded by the American Pixel Academy to celebrate excellence in moving pixels.

NASA 360 is part of the NASA eClips project that provides free NASA educational video content for the Internet. It airs on NASA TV and can be seen online at NASA's Web site, on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. Viewers also can subscribe to the video podcast through iTunes. NASA 360 also can be seen on 450 public broadcasting, cable and commercial stations across the country.

To find NASA 360, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasa360

To access the NASA eClips videos, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education/nasaeclips

For additional information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For additional information about the National Institute of Aerospace, visit:

http://www.nianet.org

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4997
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-9886
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.gov

Audrey Staples
National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Va.
757-325-6981
audrey.staples@nianet.org