For its 20th birthday, the space telescope is to be the star of a spectacular IMAX 3D production. Take a look at the new preview trailer.
In May 2009, space shuttle mission STS-125 marked the last time that one of NASA’s space planes was to visit space telescope Hubble. This flight of Atlantis with 7 astronauts spelled an in-depth servicing of the orbital observatory and the installation of new instruments.
An IMAX 3D film for March 2010 This year, the space telescope will celebrate its 20th birthday as it was launched on 24 April 1990. But Hubble 3D is to be released as of March 2010. This IMAX format documentary in stereoscopic vision has been produced by Warner Bros in collaboration with NASA. The new preview trailer recently put on-line can be seen below.
If the director, Toni Myers, is to be believed, the uniting of the IMAX format with space owes much to Michael Collins, the third man from Apollo 11, the astronaut that stayed in lunar orbit in the Apollo capsule whilst Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Sea of Tranquility. When Washington’s Air and Space Museum was fitted out with an IMAX cinema in the 1970’s, Collins, who was then Director of the museum, said that only this format specifically designed for giant screens could transmit astronauts’ experiences to the general public. This led to the production of a series of IMAX documentaries on space including the famous The Dream is Alive which is all about the beginning of the space shuttle programme and was written and edited by... Toni Myers! She was also involved in the making of Space Station 3D, the first production filmed in IMAX 3D in orbit and was, as mentioned above, at the controls of Hubble 3D. It is worth noting that the commentary for the original film is narrated by actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Left: Toni Myers, director of Hubble 3D as well as other IMAX productions featuring space such as Space Station 3D. Right: Leonardo DiCaprio is recording the Hubble 3D commentary. Credit: IMAX
But where is the camera? For Hubble 3D, Toni Myers wanted views of the 2 astronauts during their spacewalks filmed from the space shuttle payload bay. But due to the constraints of the mission, it was not possible for either of the two astronauts to take on the role of cameraman. The IMAX 3D equipment had to be attached in a strategic place in the payload bay so that some interesting shots could be brought back (see diagram and photographs below).
The IMAX camera was placed in a strategic place (yellow circle) in a space shuttle payload bay, giving it a unique view point of the Hubble servicing operations. The telescope was fastened to the holder circled in green during the maintenance interventions. Credit: NASA / Enjoy Space
Here on the ground, technicians can be seen preparing the IMAX 3D camera so that it could be installed in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis. Credit: NASA - Enjoy Space
With the added difficulty of there being no question of changing the film during the flight, the eight minutes were there to be used but not a second more... The director is full of praise for NASA’s complete and full co-operation as well as that of the crew of mission STS-125, responsible for activating the camera by remote control so as to capture the most significant moments. And viewers, watching the preview trailer presented at the beginning of the article, have the feeling that the images that were brought back are particularly spectacular. They will therefore have to bide their time, impatiently, before being able to admire them in stereoscopic vision on the giant screen.
For the requirements of the film Space Station 3D, astronauts (here American Bill Shepherd and Russian Sergei Krikalev) had filmed the first IMAX 3D sequences in space. But for Hubble 3D, the impressive camera was placed directly outside, in the space shuttle payload bay. Credit: NASA
In addition to taking a look at mission STS-125, Hubble 3D is also going to evoke the history of the space telescope since its launch and will take spectators on a journey through its most beautiful photographs thanks to a stereoscopic vision accomplished with the collaboration of the scientific teams from this space astronomy programme which has changed our way of seeing the Universe.
The IMAX 3D camera being inaccessible in the payload bay, the STS-125 astronauts filmed part of their activity with a high-definition digital camcorder. If necessary, certain views will perhaps be used once they have been “blow up” into IMAX 3D (this process was used for short sequences of Space Station 3D). Credit: NASA
This is the mythical rocket par excellence, the one that launched Sputnik, the first satellite and Gagarin, the first man in space. The CSG, Guiana Space Centre, is now one of its launch bases: a historic achievement.
The first episode of this famous science-fiction series was broadcast in September 1966. NASA has often made references to these programmes, as in the case of the space shuttle Enterprise, which had the same name as the spaceship in the series.
50 years ago on 5 May 1961, a few weeks after Gagarin, American Alan Shepard reached space. Several years later, he was to walk on the Moon, summarising as it were the race in which the Soviet Union and the United States were competing.
