TIME Launches New Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality App, TIME Immersive, to Showcase Groundbreaking Visual Journalism

Today, TIME launches TIME Immersive, an augmented reality and virtual reality app, available on both iOS and Android devices, to showcase new AR and VR projects from TIME.

The first activation featured in TIME Immersive is Landing on the Moon, which allows viewers to experience a scientifically and historically accurate cinematic recreation of the Apollo 11 landing in photo-real 3D on any table top at home.

The project is sponsored by Jimmy Dean and produced in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. A teaser for Landing on the Moon is also available as a mobile web AR experience.

“With Landing on the Moon, TIME is building on its decades of trusted and authoritative space reporting to tell this story in a brand new way, just as we have done in previous projects such as our Emmy Award-winning documentary A Year in Space,” said Edward Felsenthal, TIME Editor in Chief and CEO.

“TIME has always been at the forefront of visual storytelling. With the launch of this app and our first web AR experience, we are putting a stake in the ground with AR and establishing the level of immersive journalism that TIME will continue to bring to our readers,” said Mia Tramz, Emmy-winning VR producer and editorial director of Enterprise and Immersive Experiences at TIME.

“The National Air and Space Museum’s Apollo collection is the largest in the world, and we are excited to present Landing on the Moon with our partners at TIME, whose Apollo-era reporting helped shape the way Americans experienced the space race,” said Nick Partridge, who leads strategic partnerships for the Museum and co-directed the Apollo 50 national celebration. “This AR activation brings our artifacts to life like never before, and we hope it inspires a new generation to define their own 21st century Moonshot.”

The accuracy of Landing on the Moon is the result of nearly 20 years of painstaking research and artistry by John Knoll, Chief Creative Officer of Industrial Light & Magic and made possible with research and 3-D assets provided by Knoll and the Smithsonian’s Digitization Office. The project features immersive spatial sound design by Erik Lohr, RYOT’s head of audio, and a voice over by TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger. Led by TIME Enterprise and Immersive producer Tomi Omololu-Lange, Landing on the Moon is co-produced by TIME, Trigger – The Mixed Reality AgencyTM, John Knoll, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office, RYOT, and Yahoo News. The TIME Immersive app and the mobile web AR experience (built on Amazon Sumerian) were developed by Trigger. In partnership with the Yahoo News XR Partner Program, the experience is also available on the Yahoo News app.

The launch of TIME Immersive follows the announcement earlier this year of two major immersive projects to be released by TIME: The March, which will offer audiences an unprecedented opportunity to experience the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in a groundbreaking room-scale, interactive virtual reality and Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, an immersive documentary series filmed on and around the International Space Station. For more information on TIME’s immersive content: time.com/immersive

Contact us at TIMEImmersive@time.com.