HOULTON, Maine — The town of Houlton provided the ending to NASA’s live broadcast of the total solar eclipse in 2024, contributing a critical piece of the coverage that recently helped the space agency to win an Emmy award for the program.
Traveling 3,000 miles across seven states and two countries — the coverage started in Mazatlan, Mexico — the live, three-hour broadcast showed the path of totality in its entirety. It relied on 67 cameras, six control rooms, 300 crew members, 20 telescope feeds and 12 locations, including Houlton on April 8, 2024.
“Our reach was massive. It’s hard to describe the magnitude of the broadcast and what it took to put that together,” said Sami Aziz, executive producer for the NASA live broadcast. “It was the most complex and ambitious broadcast NASA has ever attempted.”
Aziz said that the producers of the broadcast initially had a story without an ending.
“We needed a place to say it has now left North America, it has now left the continental U.S.,” he said. “And that location became Houlton, Maine. It was a location that we activated as both an engagement site and as a broadcast site because we really needed that terminus.”
In May, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced NASA’s Emmy nomination and in June, the award went to the agency for outstanding live news special coverage for the broadcast, “Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA.”
One other nominee in the category, “Total Eclipse of the Heartland” by CBS, also documented the celestial event. The other nominees all focused on national politics, including CNN’s presidential town hall with former Vice President Kamala Harris; NBC News’ coverage of the 2024 election night; ABC News’ coverage of the election; and ABC News’ coverage of the assasination attempt on President Donald Trump.
Aziz and Emily Furfaro, supervising producer, accepted the award on behalf of NASA.
Long before the broadcast, NASA reached out to Houlton. Nancy Ketch, the town’s director of community development, was their initial contact and oversaw preliminary logistics like setting up tents in case of weather issues and other accommodations, according to Aziz.
“She was the one who connected us to the Temple Theater and Fred Grant who set us up in the theater lobby, basically giving us a control room area, and that was where the Houlton hub was,” he said.
Fred Grant, who owns the downtown historic Temple theater, said all conditions aligned for the broadcast.
The town’s eclipse committee had prepared for years to make sure members were easy to find by media outlets, Grant said.
“Without the preparation, NASA may never have visited and been successful,” he said. “We’re glad to play a small part in their overall broadcast.”
The main hub of the NASA live broadcast was in Cleveland and all spokes from the individual broadcast locations fed back to Cleveland. It was internet protocol-based instead of using satellite trucks, he said.
“It was at a scale of IP that I don’t know has ever been attempted,” Aziz said. “Nothing has spanned 3,000 miles live and hopping back and forth between locations constantly. That’s what made it so special.”
This was Aziz’s fifth Emmy as a producer. Previously he won four Primetime Emmy awards for outstanding structured reality program for “Shark Tank,” where he was a producer for nearly 10 years.
Quite by chance, a very special thing happened in Houlton right at the end of the broadcast during totality, Aziz said.
The International Space Station was exactly overhead and the production crew was able to connect with the astronauts over Houlton.
Aziz explained that they had hoped to connect with the space station but couldn’t predict where it would be during the broadcast, but it ended up right over Houlton. That allowed them to provide the unique perspective of both the telescope feed from Houlton showing the sun and the International Space Station showing the shadow of the moon over Houlton.
“We were able to put that side by side, and it was the only location we were able to do that. It was really special,” Aziz said. “That would not have been possible without the Houlton location.”
A second film documenting Houlton’s role in the 2024 total solar eclipse was also just awarded best feature film at the 28th Annual Maine International Film Festival on Sunday.
“A Moment in the Sun,” a feature documentary that follows four local people, tells the human story of the Aroostook County town’s preparation for the rare celestial event.
“To be honored with Best Feature at such a revered festival is beyond words,” says co-director Mia Weinberger. “This project has been a labor of love for us, and to see it acknowledged at MIFF, where so many amazing films have premiered, is truly humbling. We are so proud of the story we’ve told, and it feels so special to share it with a broader audience.”
The film now heads to Portland, where it will have its Portland premiere at the Maine Outdoor Film Festival on July 25 at the Osher Hall at Maine College of Art & Design. And it will come home to Houlton, where it will have its official hometown premiere at the Temple Theatre starting Sept. 5, with screenings running throughout the week.
