In this presentation, Liam Kennedy, amateur astronomer, former president of the Orange County Astronomers, and now SpaceTV Director at Sen, shares his remarkable journey from local astronomy outreach to developing technology that now operates aboard the International Space Station.

During his years supporting OCA’s public school programs in the 2000s, Liam discovered how few people realized that astronauts were living and working overhead. That awareness gap sparked the idea that would later become ISS-Above — a small device that alerts users whenever the Space Station passes overhead and, eventually, displayed live video of Earth from orbit.

What began as a personal project to inspire his grandchildren soon attracted global attention, support from The Planetary Society and NASA, and partnerships that placed ISS-Above units in classrooms across the U.S. When NASA’s original HDEV Earth-viewing cameras were retired, Liam refused to let the public lose that connection to space. His persistence led him to collaborate with Sen, a company dedicated to sharing real-time 4K views of Earth from orbit.

Through his initiative, Sen’s SpaceTV-1 camera system became part of the ISS via Airbus’s Bartolomeo platform — fulfilling a vision that began two decades earlier with OCA telescope nights under the stars.

This talk brings that full-circle story to life — showing how one amateur astronomer’s outreach mission grew into a global window on our planet from space.

Liam Kennedy joined Sen in July 2023 as Space TV Director. For over a decade, he has championed live Earth views from the International Space Station (ISS) through his invention of ISS-Above, a Raspberry Pi-based device delivering real-time ISS tracking and video feeds. Since its 2013 Kickstarter launch, ISS-Above has expanded to more than 5,000 installations worldwide, inspiring students, educators, and the public.

In 2019, NASA contacts connected Liam with Sen CEO Charles Black to explore building a commercial UHD camera payload for the ISS. That partnership led to SpaceTV-1, a three-camera system launched in March 2024 and now operating on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo platform.

Liam’s background blends media production, live streaming, and product innovation, with a focus on astronomy, science, and space outreach. He is a frequent presenter and thought leader in the commercial space sector, featured on technology and space podcasts, and a regular speaker at the ISS R&D Conference, where he has presented five times since 2015.