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Space Explorers: The ISS Experience Previews

4 minute read

Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios release today the first of four episodes in the immersive series Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, chronicling the lives of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Episode One, “ADAPT”, was filmed entirely on board the International Space Station and it’s available to view in 360° mobile format on tablets and smartphones from select 5G telcos in Asia and also in fully-immersive virtual reality on Oculus Rift and Quest headsets.

“ADAPT” will also premiere in 360-degree fulldome format at a number of major planetariums beginning in November, with other dome and big screen premieres to follow.

Sneak Peek | Learning to Move in Zero Gravity

Think life in zero-g would be easy and fun? Think again. Grow up in the one-g environment of Earth and things can get awfully screwy as you try to adapt to a life in which up is not up, down is not down, and you fly rather than walk from place to place. As astronaut David Saint-Jacques explains in this virtual-reality sneak peek at TIME’s and Felix & Paul Studio’s “The ISS Experience,” your first few days in space can be an awfully clumsy experience. Learn more at time.com/space


Sneak Peek | Mealtime in Outer Space

Shrimp, olives and craisins were not the stuff of cosmic dining back in the early days of the space age. But as the spacecraft have gotten bigger and more complex and the missions have gotten longer and longer, mealtime has become a special part of the astronauts’ work cycle—a chance both to eat well and wind down from a long day. In this preview clip from TIME’s and Felix & Paul Studio’s “The ISS Experience,” we see the space station crew at dinnertime–enjoying both the good food and the good company. Learn more at time.com/space


Sneak Peek | Advice for a Station Newbie

“If your feet are stable, the rest of you is stable.” That’s the critical piece of space wisdom astronaut Anne McClain offers crewmate Christina Koch, as Koxh learns her way around the International Space Station in this quick clip from TIME’s and Felix & Paul Studio’s “The ISS Experience,” available in virtual-reality headsets. The station seems glamorous if you’re on Earth, but once you’re aboard it turns out to be bafflingly cluttered and hard to navigate. As McClain tells Koch, “If you happen to kick something, turn around and look at what you kicked, because it’s probably important.” Learn more at time.com/space


Sneak Peek | Looking Down on Earth

Perhaps the greatest spot in the greatest flying machine ever built is the cupola—the seven windowed downward-facing dome—in the International Space Station. It’s there that astronauts can see the magnificence of the planet below them and the signs of the highly technological species—the lights of the cities, the contrails of the airplanes—that sent them to space in the first place. It’s also there, as astronaut Anne McClain explains in this clip from TIME’s and Felix & Paul Studio’s “The ISS Experience,” that astronauts can appreciate that humanity can be “united by the dream of exploration and accomplishment, rather than being united by fear.” As “The ISS Experiences” launches, with episodes downloadable on Oculus Rift and Quest headsets. The rest of us—the vast majority of humanity that will never make it to space—can appreciate that transcendent feeling too. For more information time.com/space

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Write to Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey.kluger@time.com