Felix & Paul Studios, the EMMY-award winning creator of immersive entertainment experiences, and TIME Studios, TIME’s EMMY-award winning television and film division, today announced the worldwide premiere of Episode One of the groundbreaking immersive series, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of human presence aboard the International Space Station.
Episode One, “ADAPT”, was created in collaboration with the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and other space agencies involved with the International Space Station and was filmed entirely on board the ISS using Felix & Paul Studios’ specialized 3D, 360-degree virtual reality Space Camera. Astronauts Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques, Christina Koch and Nick Hague star as cast, film crew and narrators in the first episode of this four-part immersive series, the largest production ever filmed in space.
Episode One of The ISS Experience premieres today in 360° mobile format on 5G-enabled tablets and smartphones through leading telcos – including LGU+ (South Korea), KDDI (Japan) and China Telecom – and also in fully-immersive virtual reality on the Oculus Store for RIFT, Quest and Quest 2 devices. To celebrate the ongoing contributions of both Canada and the U.S. to space travel, exploration and scientific research, “ADAPT” will also premiere in 360-degree fulldome format at a number of major planetariums beginning in November, including Colorado’s Fiske Planetarium, Montreal‘s Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, Calgary’s Telus Spark Science Center, Halifax’s Discovery Centre and Edmonton’s Telus-World of Science.
“Over the past 20 years, very few people have journeyed to the International Space Station. Through the power of immersive storytelling, we can now bring hundreds of millions of spectators aboard this extraordinary spacecraft that circles the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, to experience how astronauts live and to marvel at the beauty of Earth seen from Space,” said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios and director of the EMMY-nominated Space Explorers series. “After two years of filming and over 200 hours of footage captured aboard the Space Station in 360-degree 3D virtual reality, it is truly gratifying to share this experience with viewers around the world.”
In recognition of the release of Episode One of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, Lajeunesse is participating today in a special episode of TIME100 Talks, the live virtual series from TIME (link) that convenes leaders from every field to spotlight solutions to urgent global problems and encourage cross-disciplinary action, focused on the future of space exploration, alongside NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Chris Cassidy, actor John Cho, humanitarian Eddie Ndopu and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.
“This release marks a huge milestone for all of us who have worked tirelessly on this labor of love. When people see the stunning detail and humanity we have managed to capture, I hope they will come closer to understanding what it means to be an astronaut living and working in space,” said Jonathan Woods, Executive Producer for The ISS Experience at TIME Studios and EMMY-winning producer of A Year in Space.
About Episode One: “ADAPT”
“ADAPT”, the first episode in the four-part immersive series, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, documents the arrival of a new crew of astronauts aboard the International Space Station as they discover the joy, wonder and danger of living in space. Years of training come into play as the crew overcomes disorientation from microgravity, responds to potential catastrophic emergencies, and learns to operate as a close-knit team. The extreme nature of this unique shared experience brings them to form family-like bonds. The 24-minute immersive experience was filmed entirely in Space using Felix & Paul Studios’ specialized 3D, 360-Degree Space Camera and features Astronauts Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques, Christina Koch and Nick Hague who served as cast, film crew and narrators in this groundbreaking immersive production.
