Live Public-Access Video Feeds to Come From Space [PHOTOS]

The people of Earth are set to get a live video feed from space, at the end of this year.

That's when two special cameras --- one a medium-resolution still camera and the other, a high-resolution video camera --- will be flown to the International Space Station aboard the Progress 53P Space Cargo Ship, which in turn will be powered by a Russian 'Soyuz' rocket.

Launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan amid a number of other station supplies, the two cameras will later become the eyes of the world, in a very real sense, part of an effort by Canada-based company UrtheCast to establish a publicly-accessible, live video feed from the International Space Station.

"This is a watershed moment for UrtheCast, paving the way for the rest of our plan as we work to complete a ground station network, the interactive UrtheCast web platform and rigorous camera testing," said Scott Larson, UrtheCast President and CEO, in an announcement posted at the company's website. "Being placed on the Russian Space Agency's Progress manifest solidifies a decisive step towards UrtheCast's official platform launch."

Following their delivery to the ISS, the two UrtheCast cameras will be carried outside by space-walking crew members and installed on the Zvezda Service Module of the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory.

A few months later, the cameras' first images of the Earth will begin transmitting to ground stations across the globe through a high-speed downlink from the station, and then streamed to the web.

Actually, there will be a delay of about an hour before the images are shared with the world through Urthecast's site --- due to the rather tricky process of getting images transmitted down to the ground.

The imaging systems have about a one-meter resolution, which means they won't be able to see individual people.

But, the cameras will be able to see crowds, stadium shows and likely even news events like plane crashes or floods. In that way, the folks at UrtheCast hope their public eye on the world can potentially drive one-of-a-kind conversations about news, environmental matters, and politics.

Meanwhile, the United Nations plans to use the feeds for crisis monitoring.

UrtheCast developed the video cameras in cooperation with RSC Energia, Russia's largest space organization, and the United Kingdom's RAL Space research and development agency.