In a remote area of West Texas, 30 miles from the nearest town, Blue Origin launched its NS-31 mission, a significant crewed spaceflight featuring an all-women team. Broadcast Management Group (BMG), with a team of over 60 people, achieved a remarkable feat: engineering a full-scale live production in just two weeks. Their task encompassed designing the infrastructure and executing live coverage of the pre-launch show, rocket launch, astronaut landing, and post-launch press conference at Launch Site One near Van Horn, Texas.
“We’ve spent over 20 years producing large-scale, multi-camera live broadcasts, and the NS-31 mission brought all of that experience into play. We built a full video village onsite and delivered a seamless live show from one of the most remote locations we’ve worked in. It was a technically demanding production, and the team executed it to perfection,” said Todd Mason, CEO and founder of BMG.
The remote setting presented significant challenges, primarily establishing a reliable, fully redundant broadcast infrastructure. BMG deployed NEP’s Denali A, B, and C mobile units as the main production control center. These units, equipped for high-bandwidth output and live switching, incorporated redundant power to prevent interruptions.
A mobile video village served as the central hub, connected via a temporary fiber-optic network to the astronaut training facility, viewing platforms, and other key areas. The communications backbone comprised systems from RTS, Riedel, Clear-Com, and Unity, ensuring real-time coordination across the expansive launch facility. LiveU bonded cellular technology, complemented by Starlink, guaranteed a reliable stream for a global audience, overcoming the inconsistent wired internet at the site.
BMG deployed 35 cameras for visual coverage. Footage from each source was integrated live, with on-site switching. They also managed lighting, staging, and audio for the on-camera segments, including pre-launch and press events.
Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission, a suborbital spaceflight on April 14, 2025, under the New Shepard program, lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds. The all-female crew included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez. This mission marked the first all-women crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963.