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IMAX® 3D CAMERAS ON FINAL FILMING MISSION FOR FIRST-EVER IMAX SPACE FILM: SPACE STATION
Sponsored by Lockheed Martin
Daily Departures to SPACE STATION Begin Spring 2002
Kennedy Space Center, FL (July 10, 2001) -The upcoming flight of the U.S. Shuttle Atlantis (STS-104), scheduled for launch July 12 at Kennedy Space Center, will be the final mission for two well-known passengers that have logged more than 7,000 hours in space. They have traveled and worked, often simultaneously, on seven space shuttle missions and with two resident crews of the International Space Station (ISS). They have been at the astronauts' and cosmonauts' sides, on watch during scores of hours of space walks, chronicling for history the greatest engineering feat since landing a man on the Moon: the on-orbit construction of the International Space Station. These well-traveled space enthusiasts are two IMAX® 3D cameras, filming for the first-ever IMAX 3D space film: SPACE STATION.
When the IMAX 3D cameras return to Earth, they will have spent more than two years filming in Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, on seven U.S. Shuttle missions, and inside and outside the International Space Station. Daily departures to SPACE STATION, via IMAX theaters worldwide, begin in spring 2002.
Early in 1997, IMAX Corporation, in association with Lockheed Martin Corporation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), began a program to develop new IMAX 3D cameras to fly in space. In order to meet the mass and volume constraints for space flight, a new concept in IMAX cameras was required for the filming of SPACE STATION. This involved filming the left- and right-eye images, necessary for 3D, onto a single filmstrip, and then separating these images onto two strips of film for projection. The new IMAX 3D cameras, plus new photoflood lights and Digital Audio Tape recorders, required six months of flight tests, in order to qualify for space travel.
"IMAX Corporation is at the leading edge of technology and we are continuously finding ways to bring unique experiences to audiences around the world," said IMAX Corporation Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. "The new IMAX 3D Cameras are a perfect example of this ingenuity. Only IMAX 3D technology can transport audiences to such extraordinary places, like the Space Station. Our six-story screens with 15,000 watts of surround-sound will literally launch audiences into space to witness history in the making."
The New IMAX 3D Cameras
The IMAX3D Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC3D) was launched October 2000, and with its last trip into space on STS-104, will have flown on four space shuttle missions. The IMAX ICBC3D camera was uniquely designed to mount in a pressurized container in the Cargo Bay of the Space Shuttle. Astronauts remotely control the camera through the use of a laptop computer connected to a video camera, which has allowed the filmmakers to frame their shots, select focus and exposures, and for the first time, choose from alternate camera lenses.
The IMAX3D In-Cabin Camera (IMAX3D) was designed to permit the astronauts to film inside the Space Station. IMAX3D made its maiden voyage to space in September 2000, and has been onboard the station for six visiting Shuttle missions (STS-92, STS-97, STS-98, STS-102, STS-100, and STS-104). The IMAX3D camera will remain on the International Space Station through the STS-105 and return to Earth in August 2001.
"On the cameras' last mission, IMAX astronaut-filmmakers will film the installation of the joint airlock, from which the astronauts will stage the first space walk from the interior of the space station," said the film's producer, Toni Myers. "On its departure from the station, the IMAX ICBC3D Camera will capture stunning views of the entire International Space Station in 3D, with its golden solar arrays outstretched majestically against the backdrop of Earth."
SPACE STATION is produced by IMAX Space Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of IMAX Corporation and sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation, in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Lockheed Martin-IMAX partnership has produced five major large-screen films in 15 years, adventures that chronicle the history of modern spaceflight. From The Dream Is Alive in 1985, to Blue Planet (1990), Destiny In Space (1994) and Mission To Mir (1997), IMAX and Lockheed Martin have enabled millions of moviegoers worldwide to experience first-hand what it is like to travel, live and work in space.
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