NASA’s International Space Station is set to become a filming location

Could the International Space Station (ISS) become a place for great motion pictures? It looks like the orbiting lab, which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build and maintain, is poised to play that role.

Recently, NASA and its international partners celebrated the 20th anniversary of human occupation of the orbiting laboratory known as the International Space Station. To illustrate how remarkable this feat is, a baby born the year Expedition One embarked on the then-under-construction ISS would now be attending college.

The benefits the ISS has reaped in science, technology, and commercial space travel are all well known. Indeed, while the space station was a controversial issue in the early 1990s and was canceled in a single vote, the orbiting laboratory is now so popular that the question is not when to end the program but whether to end the program. how long it should be operated. The consensus seems to be that the ISS should continue until at least 2028, which many engineers see as the outer limit of its useful life.

NASA Administrator Jim bridenstineJames (Jim) Frederick Bridenstine The Case for NASA’s Post-Election Day Bridenstine For Sale: Moon Views Mark Kelly On Space Force, NASA’s Return Of Artemis To The Moon Are Problematic MORE proposed moving to commercially built and operated space stations, where the space agency will be a primary tenant. A proposal for such a successor to the ISS is under development by Axiom Space, according to Space.com. Axiom would attach commercial modules to the ISS starting in 2024. When the ISS is finally retired, Axiom would move to its own free-flight space station, where NASA and other customers would lease space. The company also plans to hold sightseeing flights on the SpaceX Crew Dragon from late 2021.

The ISS will soon play a role President Ronald Reagan never imagined when he first proposed to build an orbiting laboratory in the mid-1980s. Soon, if the plans materialize, the ISS will become a remote site for feature films. The fact is ironic, given that Reagan began his life as a film actor.

According to Deadline, Tom Cruise is planning a film that will partly be shot on board the ISS. No details are available for the moment on the subject of the film. SpaceX Elon muskElon Reeve MuskBlue Origin Takes Small Step Forward to Become a SpaceX Competitor Virgin Hyperloop to Build New Certification Center in West Virginia SpaceX Wins Contract to Build U.S. Military Tracking Satellites READ MORE is involved, so presumably Cruise and a small film crew will travel to the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon. Bridenstine gave his unspoken blessing to the project. The film will be directed by Doug Liman, who worked with Cruise on “American Made” and “Edge of Tomorrow”.

Not to be outdone, the Russians are planning their own feature film aboard the ISS. The Russian film will be called “Challenge”. Little is known about the Russian project except that it will feature a woman as the main character. The film is supported by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The very first film to be shot aboard the International Space Station was an eight-minute short film titled “Apogee of Fear,” produced by Richard Garriott, who used some of the millions he made to create computer games for pay a space tourism getaway to the orbiting lab. Garriott used crew members aboard the ISS as actors for the film.

Movies involving adventures in space have been a staple of the big screen for decades. Classics include “Destination Moon”, “Forbidden Planet”, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the most recent “The Martian”. None of these movies were shot on location, so to speak, and they relied on special effects to create the illusion of being in space. This fact may change.

When we think of commercializing space, we usually imagine creating goods and services that can only be possible in a microgravity environment. However, the oldest space product predates the era of space travel, namely movies and TV shows set on the High Frontier. It is natural that, as soon as they become affordable, these types of projects are shot, in part, where they take place.

Maybe a commercial space station or a future moon base could help self-finance would serve as a movie studio and set. Movies, TV shows, documentaries, and even virtual reality experiences can be produced and then broadcast to Earth inexpensively. Space entertainment would thus merge, in part, with space reality.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently on space and politics, published a political study on space exploration titled Why Is It So Hard To Get Back To The Moon? as well as “The Moon, Mars and beyond.” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. It is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among others.