The ISS Experience Will Allow Viewers to Experience Missions and Spacewalks

The first scene of The ISS Experience — a collaboration between TIME and Felix & Paul Studios to bring viewers a look at one of the most remote and coveted locations — has been filmed. Announced at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend, the project, which the makers call “unprecedented access to a participatory experience — one that will culminate with the first-ever filming of a spacewalk in cinematic virtual reality,” will take a year to complete.

The International Space Station experience is created by using virtual reality camera systems, two of which were launched on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft last month. The customized VR cameras will capture the essence of the ISS experience throughout the station.

“We will take audiences inside and outside of the space station through the immersive and experiential power of virtual reality,” said Felix & Paul creative director Félix Lajeunesse. “We’re going to look at the research, the science and the work that is done on the International Space Station. And we’re also going to look closely at the reality and challenges of learning to live in space.”

He added that “as the story builds up, it’s going to gradually ramp up to a spacewalk, where we will take audiences outside the space station, alongside the astronauts, to capture the first ever cinematic VR spacewalk.”

TIME and Felix & Paul Studios collaborated with NASA to determine the ideal camera locations. “A very vital thing to virtual reality storytelling is where you actually place the camera, and in our practice at the studio, we like to think of the virtual reality camera as if it were a person. We generally want to place that VR camera where a person could actually physically be or stand, and that’s a massive factor in building a sense of immersion for audiences,” said Lajeunesse. The challenge was to place the cameras so that they don’t get in the way of the astronauts, as the space on the station is limited.

Later this year, two more VR cameras will be launched to the ISS, capable of not only withstanding microgravity, but to participate in the “first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk) in cinematic virtual reality,” according to the creators.

Filming should be finished by late 2019, and The ISS Experience will be available on platforms that support augmented reality, virtual reality and other immersive systems.

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