C-SPAN to broadcast astronaut’s SPC speech

"C-SPAN, the cable television company that provides live start-to-finish television coverage of government proceedings and other content, will be at Tropicana Field on Saturday, May 8, to provide coverage of astronaut Nicole Stott’s speech to SPC graduates.

C-SPAN usually covers congressional hearings and other government-related events, but it also provides coverage of selected college commencement speeches every spring. A C-SPAN spokesman said the company had reviewed more than 500 upcoming commencement speakers and had selected about a dozen to cover live. Stott’s SPC speech was one of those selected.

The coverage is expected to include the entire speech and will be carried live, starting at 10 a.m. It is the first time C-SPAN has ever covered an event at SPC.

C-SPAN describes itself as a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. It says its mission is to provide public access to the political process.

The company receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming.
Stott is a Clearwater native who graduated from Clearwater High School and attended SPC. Her first NASA space mission was last year, when she spent about four months on the International Space Station."

(Source: SPC's Blue and White)