A scene fills the giant screen—bare legs dangle below light blue shorts, elbows extend from dark blue polo shirts, hair billows around someone’s head. Although backs are turned toward the camera, it becomes evident that we are watching a woman and two men moving about in close quarters. One drifts up toward a window as another rises out of his seat and easily floats toward her. In the next scene, six people dive into view, one at a time, twirling suspended in midair as the narrator comments, “For us inside the spacecraft, there’s a new experience: weightlessness.”
The Dream Is Alive, an IMAX® documentary feature film released in 1985, introduced the space shuttle and its astronauts to audiences numbering in millions around the world.1 Produced by IMAX Corporation and presented by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and Lockheed Corporation in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), this film, one of the first to be shot on location in space, aimed to bring spaceflight down to Earth by faithfully capturing the astronauts’ experience.2 Edited from footage shot on three 1984 shuttle missions, The Dream Is Alive oriented audiences to the new spacecraft and the new generation of astronauts living and working in space. Light on narration and dialogue in favor of vivid imagery projected on a screen several stories tall, the film visually invited viewers to enter the scenes as if they were in space themselves. This immersive experience, already an IMAX hallmark, had never been attempted for spaceflight.3
The Dream Is Alive proved so popular that IMAX Corporation made five more documentaries in space, most recently, the Warner Bros. Pictures and IMAX Filmed Entertainment presentation of Hubble 3D in 2010. From first to last, these films presented new images of spacefarers, supplanting the image of astronaut as heroic pilot popularized in the 1960s. The IMAX films featured the new demographic: the many shuttle era astronauts, some of them women, who were scientists and engineers serving in the new role of mission specialist. Inspired by NASA’s early theme for the shuttle age, “Going to Work in Space,” these films accented competence and teamwork more than courage as astronaut crews went about their various jobs.4 Only briefly on Skylab (1973–74) had astronauts lived and worked in orbit doing tasks that set the stage for more ambitious work on shuttle missions: scientific research, equipment repairs, satellite deployments and retrievals, and space station assembly and resupply. Shuttle astronauts were different from their predecessors; they commuted to work in space and figuratively wore hard hats or lab jackets on the job.
Audiences who “met” these new spacefarers on screen enjoyed virtual face-to-face contact and behind-the-scenes access to their training and flights. Through the vicarious IMAX experience, they could begin to understand what it was really like to be an astronaut. Over the course of six films, the astronauts became more nuanced and vocal personalities, ultimately speaking directly to the camera (hence the audience) to explain their work and share their emotional experience of spaceflight. As they demonstrated the skills and thrills of living in space, the astronauts revealed themselves as down-to-earth people who were both capable and likable. Without exit surveys, we cannot know whether viewers consciously changed their opinions about astronauts, but the films clearly offered new perspectives on the spacefaring profession. Film reviews from The Dream Is Alive to Hubble 3D indicate that the visually immersive encounters made a favorable impression (Figure 1).
For authenticity, the astronauts became cinematographers, planning and shooting footage to capture the experience of spaceflight directly, unmediated by a professional film crew. They mastered both the technical skills and aesthetic judgments of filmmaking, adding to their repertoire a new role that they reportedly enjoyed and took pride in. They had considerable latitude, in concert with the film directors, to shape their own image as spacefarers. The IMAX films thus effectively brought spaceflight down to Earth for astronauts and audiences alike, delivering a sense of the beauty, routine, and occasional drama of spacefaring as the astronauts experienced and recorded it. Risk sat in the backseat, as the motive driving these documentaries was excitement about, if not advocacy for, the shuttle program.
FIGURE 1. Promotional art for five of the six IMAX films shot in space featured dramatic views of astronauts working outside to visually draw viewers into orbit even before they entered a theater. © 1985 Lockheed Martin Corporation and Smithsonian Institution from the IMAX® film The Dream Is Alive.
Shot candidly and mostly without artifice, the IMAX films reflected the production team’s optimism about “routine” spaceflight. There was no questioning the aims of the shuttle era, just a pervasive confidence in a new age of exploration and discovery. The Dream especially channeled NASA’s positive rhetoric about the benefits of the shuttle and human spaceflight in the heady years before the 1986 Challenger tragedy. In the later films, at least a passing acknowledgment of risk tempered this positive outlook, but the tenor of The IMAX Experience® remained upbeat and inspirational. The filmmaking collaboration and participating astronauts aimed to tell a good story that would inform, awe, and excite audiences about spaceflight.
The in-theater experience of spaceflight became possible through the convergence of three new technologies: the space shuttle, the IMAX 70mm film cameras, and the IMAX large-format projection and surround-sound system. The shuttle was spacious enough to accommodate the bulky cameras as a special payload, and with typically five or seven crewmembers aboard, mission planners could schedule at least one astronaut to handle shooting. The IMAX cameras produced high-resolution imagery of remarkable clarity and detail, shown to maximum advantage in advanced-design theaters. Repeated flights of the cameras yielded opportunities for a rich variety of footage, and lessons learned from one mission could be factored into the next fairly quickly. The convergence of these technologies—and the technically savvy astronauts who shot the scenes—made for a spaceflight film experience unlike any other.5
New York Times film critic Vincent Canby immediately recognized the impact of IMAX and other new big-screen productions. He raved that these “possibly seminal new films” were “the most viscerally exciting, mind-expanding movies being made today—the kind that provide windows on worlds previously undreamed of.” Citing the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he saw the “splendid” The Dream Is Alive, he reported that the film astonishes; “you are an astronaut peering at Earth below … you don’t feel as if you’re outside looking in … as much as the eye, the mind is engaged through sheer sensation and the multitude of details.”6
Twenty-five years later, when Hubble 3D appeared, a new generation of reviewers had nearly identical responses: “The spectacular new IMAX film … not only puts you in space but lets you travel through it with a speed and wonder.”7 The sometimes grouchy Roger Ebert called it “awesome,” and a leading critic of documentaries claimed that “what you can’t anticipate until the lights dim and the film blasts off is the extraordinary exhilaration of joining astronauts on their space mission … The 3D puts you in the middle of the astronauts … and carries you in to space … and gives you an astronaut’s-eye view of Earth.”8 A Variety film critic gave a stellar review: “Hubble 3D comes as close as any film to reproducing the curious, cosmic sensation of floating through outer space … it’s an experience so pure and vivid.”9
Origin of the IMAX Space Films
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum had barely opened its new building on the Mall in Washington, D.C., when Director and Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had an idea. In November 1976 he proposed to astronaut colleague Joe Allen, who was then a senior manager across the street at NASA Headquarters, “that an IMAX motion picture camera be carried aboard and used in one of the early space shuttle flights.” Collins urged that in-flight filming would “give large numbers of people views of the earth which closely simulate actually being in orbit.” He reasoned that just as the immensely popular MacGillivray Freeman film To Fly gave people a sense of flight, footage filmed in space would give people a sense of spaceflight.10
IMAX Corporation, a newcomer in the film industry, had made a dramatic entrance with its revolutionary large-format camera and 70mm film technology, remarkably sharp images, gigantic projection wall or dome, and vibrant sound systems. The Canadian company developed its technology in the late 1960s and debuted it in the United States at the United States Pavilion at Expo ’74 in Spokane, Washington.11 At that time, the space shuttle was beginning to take shape in southern California. IMAX produced and distributed films outside the Hollywood market. It specialized in documentaries about thirty to forty minutes long, suitable for screening in museums, planetariums, and other educational venues. Its niche was films for world’s fairs and other expos. The high resolution afforded by 70mm film and a projection screen that filled the audience’s field of view gave viewers vivid imagery, a sense of motion, and a sense of being within the film. IMAX films were billed as “experiences” and audiences readily attested to their realism, even to the experience of motion sickness.
Graeme Ferguson, camera coinventor and cofounder of the company, became not only a director-producer of the films but also the chief salesperson for IMAX theater installations. He passionately believed that the new National Air and Space Museum, scheduled to open during the 1976 U.S. bicentennial celebration in Washington, D.C., must have an IMAX theater. Two years earlier he began to court the museum, but director Michael Collins, who had not yet seen an IMAX film, was not convinced. By coincidence Collins gave a speech at Expo ’74, and an IMAX representative coaxed him to visit the United States Pavilion, see the featured show, and examine the projector. Collins, an engineer, was smitten with the technology.12
Now convinced that IMAX could deliver a highly realistic experience, Collins directed that the theater for the new museum be designed for it. He also commissioned an aviation film to show off the medium and make viewers feel they were flying in a variety of aircraft. When the Museum opened to the public, To Fly vied with historic aircraft and spacecraft as the most impressive visitor experience. The museum’s IMAX theater was only the sixth one built in the United States, and it immediately became a tourism magnet in the nation’s capital.13 The mutually beneficial relationship between IMAX Corporation and the museum lasted more than two decades; all six space films premiered there.
Taking his cue from Collins, Ferguson lobbied NASA to fly an IMAX camera on the shuttle. He argued that “an IMAX film about the Space Shuttle … would provide viewers for the first time with a realistic sense of what it is like to be in space. Such a film would have great educational value, and would also assist NASA in informing the public about its work.”14 NASA initially responded positively to the proposal because such a film “would receive broad exposure, present the STS [Space Transportation System] in a favorable light, [and] allow the public to ‘participate’ on a Shuttle flight.”15 But approval did not come until several years later, when the shuttle’s test flights ended well and the vehicle was declared operational. NASA Administrator James Beggs made the decision to fly the IMAX camera after seeing Hail Columbia! A number of NASA executives continued to provide crucial support over the years for production of the space film series.16
The first IMAX film to feature the space shuttle, Hail Columbia! (1982), was not created for the National Air and Space Museum but enjoyed a long and popular run there. A dramatic documentary about the first space shuttle mission, Hail Columbia! featured IMAX sequences filmed on the ground, culminating in a thunderous, body-rattling launch shown repeatedly from various angles for maximum effect. No sponsor emerged to underwrite production costs, but Ferguson believed that this signal event in U.S. spaceflight was so important that IMAX Corporation filmed it independently. Hail Columbia! premiered in the museum for NASA’s twenty-fifth anniversary in 1983. The film became a sensation.17
Collins’s request to NASA and Ferguson’s persistence in cultivating support for the idea ultimately led to a collaboration between the Smithsonian, IMAX, NASA, and corporate sponsor Lockheed (later Lockheed Martin), a major NASA contractor for the shuttle program. Together they created three documentary films made in space. Beyond the first three films, some combination of the collaborators created three more IMAX space films.18 Vigilant about accuracy and its public image, NASA had always preferred to make its own films about space exploration and declined to endorse commercially made ones. However, anchoring the IMAX production in the well-respected Smithsonian, treating the films as documentaries, and seeing one of its own contractors fund the films as a public service gave NASA the confidence to make this collaboration possible. All members of the project team had a stake in presenting the shuttle and the astronauts in a favorable light.19
The Dream Begins
By the time Hail Columbia! opened in the museum’s theater, the group was well along in planning a successor to be filmed in space by shuttle crews using an IMAX camera. The new director of the museum, aviator and writer Walter Boyne, was very enthusiastic about the project. Together with Graeme Ferguson, Boyne supplied creative energy for The Dream Is Alive.20 While Ferguson worked out the technical logistics of the project, Boyne tackled the logistics of working together.
For several years, Ferguson had been meeting with astronauts and payload managers to determine how the large camera could best be accommodated and how much crew training would be needed. He obtained good advice and encouragement from many.21 A designated patron at NASA Headquarters, William Green, guided him through the bureaucracy and worked closely with him to identify missions that offered the best opportunities for scenes that would flow together as a coherent story. By 1982, IMAX had worked out most of the logistical issues with NASA and outlined a film based on three 1984 missions. One was a two-satellite delivery mission, another was a satellite retrieval and repair mission with spacewalks, and the third was a three-satellite delivery.22
Lacking a precedent, the group had to work out guidelines for their respective roles. IMAX would have creative control, the museum would be responsible for historical and technical accuracy and have final say on content, and the museum and Lockheed would share review and approval rights. NASA would provide the flights and technical support but had no formal role in developing or approving the creative or factual content. All were committed to the goal of making a first-class production that would be accurate, authentic, enjoyable, and of the highest quality.23
The museum drafted a set of general principles for the film to have appropriate elements of “visual splendor, scenic beauty, humor, visceral excitement,… human touches, excellent music, and so on …” and stated that “the film is explicitly intended not to be a promotional piece for NASM, NASA, Lockheed, IMAX, or anyone else, but is rather to be an uplifting emotional and educative experience for people everywhere.” The group agreed that the film would be “above all an artistic endeavor” dependent on “the artistry, inventiveness, innovation, and ingenuity of the film maker … to optimize public enjoyment and the success of the film.”24
As the group worked out the relationship mechanics, NASA and IMAX had to find a way to place the IMAX equipment on board the space shuttle. Typically, every available inch and pound were spoken for, so determining how to accommodate the camera, lenses, film magazines, and lighting and sound equipment was a challenge. Engineering and crew assessments validated the 80 pound camera’s use in orbit; it would fit into a middeck stowage locker and could be handled within the crew cabin. Mounts were designed to position it at the aft starboard window to shoot activity in the payload bay or in an overhead window to shoot views of Earth. Flight tests in NASA’s weightlessness training aircraft indicated that astronauts should be able to hold and use the camera without difficulty in space. The IMAX camera could meet the primary goal of the project: capturing the astronauts’ point of view in order to bring spaceflight down to Earth.25
In 1983, NASA granted approval to fly the camera, train the crews, and make the film. IMAX had no sooner received permission to fly the in-cabin camera on the 1984 shuttle missions than the project team began thinking more boldly. Could a camera be installed in the payload bay for a better view outside the window? Could a camera be attached to the shuttle’s robotic arm and aimed anywhere? Could a camera be mounted on a companion free-flyer satellite to shoot the shuttle from a distance? Taking the camera outside was technically more challenging than shooting through the windows. There simply was not enough time to develop, test, and put on board a pressurized container for the camera and figure out how to operate it remotely for the first three flights, so the idea of an extravehicular camera was kept alive as a future goal.26
Astronauts Become Cinematographers
It was IMAX Corporation’s responsibility to train the crews to operate the camera, and its technical team learned that the astronauts, most of them engineers, were quick studies. A cadre of astronauts took a keen interest in the camera itself and in the filmmaking project. They realized that IMAX technology could indeed bring the experience of spaceflight to the public, and they were eager to participate.27
The crews’ challenge was not only to learn how to operate the complicated camera, change film, and do other routine tasks but also to learn how to set up shots at the right exposures and use the right lenses and lighting to get the best possible images. The astronauts needed to become more than adept photographers; they also had to become accomplished cinematographers. IMAX and NASA worked together to develop the crew training schedule and curriculum. In sessions totaling about thirty-three hours over six to seven months, each mission crew underwent training first in the mechanics—learning how to use the camera and choose lenses, set exposures, focus properly, work with lighting and sound, and understand various principles specific to the large format.28
The curriculum’s second part focused on aesthetics and scene development under the tutelage of film producer-director Ferguson and writer-editor Toni Myers. The astronauts watched IMAX films as their instructors gave running commentary on composition, editing, narrative flow, and the dramatic arc of a story. After this familiarization the crew carried out assignments to conceive, set up, and shoot a scene in the crew compartment trainer that they critiqued in the next training session. These exercises in scene development and self-review polished their mechanical skills and cultivated their eye for the aesthetic elements of filming.29
It was crucial for the astronauts to gain proficiency before the mission because the film rolls taken into space allowed for exactly three or eight minutes, parceled into thirty-second shots. Every scene would be shot in one take, with no repeats, so every second of film must count. Proficiency meant being individually skillful and responsible for aspects of the shoot normally performed by a professional production team, with the additional requirement to make no mistakes. Although missing a shot would not have been fatal, men and women already committed to the zero-folerance-for-errors work ethic of spaceflight proved equally vigilant not to waste one second of film or opportunity. They also proved clever at problem solving to ensure success.30
Any task or payload added to a mission must compete for the crew’s limited time in space and in their intense preflight training schedule. Because Ferguson had spent years working within the appropriate NASA organizations and because there was both broad interest in making the film and a management directive to support the effort, the project encountered no overt resistance and had some very strong advocates, including the director of flight crew operations, George Abbey, who managed all astronaut assignments. The burden fell on IMAX to define the impact on crew time, develop clear requirements and rationales for training, and define the parameters for all desired shots. NASA occasionally disapproved an IMAX activity that interfered with a higher priority but generally strove to accommodate the filmmaking.31
By 2010 when Hubble 3D appeared, 145 astronauts and cosmonauts (about half the shuttle era corps) had trained to use the cameras and participated on IMAX missions. They were crewmembers on 24 flights selected on the basis of mission plans that could yield a compelling film scenario. Some flew with the cameras more than once and grew quite adept as filmmakers. Astronaut Marsha Ivins, who became heavily involved in the IMAX projects and likely reflected the attitude of others, remarked that it was fun to do the filming and the crews were proud of their work. Seeing the films on the big screen and knowing they had been part of showing people what space was like was “almost as good as saying I went to space.”32
Plotting to Capture the Astronaut Experience
The goal of The Dream Is Alive and the later films was to use the techniques and artistry of filming in space to capture the spaceflight experience. With astronauts as cinematographers, audiences would see and hear what happened in the moment. There would be no special effects of sunrise or weightlessness or spacecraft motion; it would all be real. Yet the film would not be random scenes in space. It would have the structure and flow of a good story.
A directorial vision and planning informed the project. IMAX had already developed storyboards—the visual and content map—of the film before crew training began. In artist’s illustrations, photographs, and skeletal script, these pages presented a story of the space shuttle in service. It was not an imaginary story but an anticipatory one, conceived by close study of mission plans. The concept for The Dream opened with scenes of Challenger returning from orbit as Discovery was being prepared for launch. Script notations conveyed the essence of The IMAX Experience®: “You are in the pilot’s seat” as the shuttle hurtles into space or the runway appears to greet you. “We can see the Earth as the astronauts see it,” moving high above clouds, sea, and fascinating landforms toward an ever-receding horizon. “We feel we are actually there” in scenes of the crew in weightlessness. On one of the missions, the crew would retrieve, repair, and redeploy the Solar Max orbital observatory. The proposed film would feature their training and flight, culminating in the orbital pas de deux of the large shuttle and smaller satellite and of the two spacewalking astronauts. The storyboards suggested a vision of future space stations and the beginning of a new age of exploration. So well had the IMAX team and shuttle crews done their homework that the actual film varied only slightly from this concept.33
By early 1984 IMAX produced a more detailed concept for the viewer’s experience. Complementing the pictorial storyboards, this scenario outlined the story in more detail and described the filmmaker’s intentions for music, sound and visual effects, and other elements of style. Already the film team could hear the “musical pulse” of a not yet composed score conveying an “atmosphere of energy and activity” around the idea of an operational shuttle fleet and “the adventure, the humor, the hazards of life in zero-gravity.” The mood of the film would range from lively to taut to triumphant as narration and music carried the visual story—and its inherent optimism—forward.34 The team agreed that renowned CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite should narrate The Dream Is Alive. He readily consented almost a year before filming began.35
Working with the film outline and narrative, IMAX and NASA technical staff pored over the timelines for the three selected missions. They drew up shot lists of desirable scenes for the story and then matched the shots to a host of other parameters, such as orbiter ground track, time of day/night, Sun angle, to build a shooting schedule within the crews’ master schedules. Timing was of the essence; sometimes there would be only seconds to shoot the desired scene as the orbit moved over the Earth or the Sun angle was just right, so equipment preparation time also had to be calculated and scheduled down to the hour, minute, and second. The time-limited onboard film and the pressure to get each scene in only one take required this detailed preplanning. The scenes that ultimately flowed together seamlessly in the final film as if captured fortuitously were precisely calculated. The shot list also allowed for opportunistic scenes at the crew’s discretion, and they responded with surprises that delighted Ferguson and Myers.
Filmed in Space by the Astronauts
The 1984 shuttle missions approved for IMAX filming were packed with action and spacewalks, so they held good promise for interesting perspectives. They also were fine examples of the shuttle’s capability as delivery truck and service station, NASA’s predominant message about the shuttle program at the time. IMAX planned to do the in-orbit filming in fairly quick succession and then release the film in mid-1985.
The crew of the first selected mission (STS 41-C in April) had two main tasks: to deliver a science and engineering research satellite called the Long Duration Exposure Facility and to capture and repair the ailing Solar Max observatory. This satellite had not been designed for in-orbit servicing, but an attempted repair was a good opportunity to try tools and techniques that would soon be needed to keep the Hubble Space Telescope in good working order. The intended dramatic high point of the film would be an astronaut’s untethered free flight in a propulsion backpack, the Manned Maneuvering Unit, to grapple Solar Max and bring it to the payload bay. The mission became more dramatic when the planned capture method failed, and the crew and mission support team had to develop a new approach. The Dream recorded the suspense and tension of a mission threatening to go awry but saved by ingenuity.
The second selected mission (STS 41-D) started with a first, a dramatic main engine shutdown on the pad, during its June launch attempt. This mission was scheduled to deploy three communications satellites and a large solar array experiment. As the technical problem that caused the shutdown was being resolved, NASA cancelled another mission, combined the payloads, and rescheduled 41-D for the end of August. This reconfiguration and launch delay put the film two months off schedule and forced IMAX to revise the production plan. Shifting launch dates could affect the timing and lighting of planned shots and the seasonal appearance of natural features on Earth. It became evident that filmmaking in space called for some flexibility.
The third selected mission (STS 41-G in October) was primarily a science and engineering mission to evaluate techniques for doing complicated tasks in space. Doing so, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to do a spacewalk, which was captured by the IMAX camera. This mission also represented NASA’s claim that human spaceflight was becoming routine. Commander Robert Crippen already was making his fourth shuttle flight, and Sally Ride was on board for her second flight. Tasks included operating an imaging radar system and other Earth-observing instruments and conducting an orbital refueling task to rehearse procedures for an upcoming mission.
For each mission, the commander appointed one crewmember to be in charge of the IMAX camera. On the Solar Max mission and the third mission, Commander Robert Crippen put himself on IMAX duty; pilot Michael Coats did the honors for the second flight. Typically, all crewmembers became involved in the shoots, whether as subjects, lighting and sound technicians, camera operator, or onboard director.
The Dream project team was pleased to see how the fourteen astronauts who handled the camera made the film their own.36 Calling it “Max,” they treated it almost as a crewmember and remained attentive to its schedule. Although they worked from preplanned shot lists and storyboards, the crews seized moments for unanticipated shots. Film director Graeme Ferguson recalled that some of the best scenes were impromptu, such as an eerie scene of astronauts asleep. He found them to be so accomplished at filming that there was no reason to consider flying an IMAX specialist aboard the shuttle (Figure 2).37
While the missions were under way, Ferguson and the IMAX team occupied a station in NASA’s Customer Support Room in the Mission Control Center in Houston. From their console they watched onboard television, listened to the flight crew’s conversations among themselves and with Mission Control, and consulted with other mission support engineering teams. The IMAX ground team often could monitor the camera in the shuttle so well that they knew every time and for how long it operated and could judge how much film was exposed or remaining. Through the astronaut on duty as CAPCOM (capsule communicator) in Mission Control, the onboard astronauts and IMAX ground team consulted on such creative matters as how to set up shots in a mutually beneficial interaction.
FIGURE 2. The bulky in-cabin IMAX camera mounted to flight deck windows for stability. Pilot John Blaha is filming spectacular views of the Earth from Discovery on the STS-29 mission in 1989. Courtesy of NASA.
After the mission, the team screened the rough footage, or “rushes,” with the astronauts. On the basis of what they saw from one mission, they made adjustments to the planned shots and techniques for the next mission. After the three 1984 flights, all major events and most of the specified scenes had been covered. The returned film magazines headed to the processing lab and on to production into a show that appeared on screen at last, nine years after the initial idea. The signature credit line on the first and later films announced, “Filmed in Space by the Astronauts.”
The credits also listed each mission and every crewmember involved in the film, whether or not that astronaut had appeared on screen. In working with the spacefaring crews, Toni Myers, who wrote and edited all the IMAX space films and directed or produced the later ones, grew comfortable telling the astronauts, “Remember, you’re the directors, not me. If something interesting comes up … go for it.” She did not want them to be too constrained by storyboards and shot lists, and she admitted to being amazed at the quality and ingenuity of their work. The astronauts enjoyed capturing their experiences to share with others, and they made many of the decisions about what to film.38 Their longtime training manager James Neihouse said, “They do such a great job and are so proud of their film work. It’s their film. We’re just the facilitators.”39
Astronauts on missions with IMAX cameras found themselves in an unaccustomed role: film stars. Not only were they shooting the scenes in the shot plan, they also were documenting their own activities in space. On camera, they were to be themselves, not actors, and to carry out their work naturally as if the camera were not present. Scene setups were not contrived staging; they were efforts to capture mission activity as it happened, with interference only to get the best exposure and focus in the most advantageous light. At the same time, the crews played a supporting role to the true star of the films, the footage itself—large-format, high-resolution, well-framed scenes that would fill a huge screen.
The series of IMAX films from The Dream Is Alive to Hubble 3D spanned twenty-five years of spaceflight and featured astronauts who joined NASA over five decades. Although the films had similar narrative and visual elements, they had no formula for the image of spacefarers. The shuttle era astronaut corps was anything but homogeneous, and fewer matched the fighter-pilot template for astronauts of the previous era.40 Arguably the most direct encounter millions of people had with spacefarers, the IMAX documentaries added new dimensions to the iconic image. The first film introduced the public to shuttle astronauts, and the continuing IMAX experience enriched the astronaut image.
Three aspects of the IMAX space films reveal how that enrichment occurred: through scenes of astronauts as “ordinary” people at work, increasing candor in the individuals’ voices and interactions with the camera, and eventual recognition of risk. Influenced by events on the ground, the crews’ comfort on camera, the two shuttle tragedies, and the IMAX team’s deepening respect and fondness for the astronauts, images of spacefarers become steadily more multidimensional and personable in successive films. Traits associated with astronauts emerged more by nuance through their unstudied humanity than by direct narrative statement.
Image: Heroic Figures or Human Beings
Hail Columbia! (1982) had featured the first shuttle crew, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, with some of the awe expressed for the first generation of astronauts. Dean of the astronaut corps, Young was already a four-time space veteran with two flights to the Moon and a top-notch test pilot. He and Crippen in their flight suits had the aura of military pilots and as the first to fly an untested spaceship deserved the mantle of courage. The film dwelled on the pilots as they appeared in two settings: with their T-38 jets and the shuttle and meeting the press before and after their mission in space. With the vehicles they were all business; with the press they were sardonic, joking, and eloquent by turns. With just enough swagger, they brought to mind the heroic astronaut archetype of the 1960s and of Tom Wolfe’s novelistic history of the first astronauts, The Right Stuff, released as a feature film a few months after Hail Columbia! The dramatic tension of the first shuttle flight, plus President Ronald Reagan’s sendoff prayer and a postmission ticker tape parade, fortified the classic image of astronauts as heroic pilots.
Except for the mission commanders, the astronauts in The Dream Is Alive were new recruits for the space shuttle era. Selected in 1978 and 1980, they were at least ten years younger than those already in the corps, and most of them arrived with quite different backgrounds. The majority were “mission specialists,” graduate-degree engineers and scientists responsible for much of the work in orbit except flying the spacecraft. Commanders Crippen and Hartsfield were in the last class of the preshuttle era, a group that had transferred to NASA from a cancelled Air Force space program in 1969. They came from the military fighter pilot/test pilot tradition, as did newly selected shuttle pilots.41
The first two astronaut classes of the shuttle era gained attention for their diversity. For the first time, women, African Americans, an Asian American, and a Hispanic passed muster for selection. In accord with NASA’s own deliberate policy and changes in American society reflected in and required by law, the astronaut corps was no longer segregated by sex or color. By the seventh shuttle mission, launched in 1983, the “new guys” were going into space. The astronaut corps had changed, and the IMAX films played a seminal role in introducing the new spacefarers.
The admission of women astronauts stirred considerable gender concerns inside and outside NASA.42 When the women were introduced to the press, the questions were predictable. Had NASA relaxed the requirements in order to select women? Would women be physically able to do the job, or would they get special treatment? How would they fit into a program steeped in male experiences and traditions? How would privacy concerns be addressed in the close quarters of a spacecraft? Despite the opportunities spurred by social change in the 1960s and 1970s, some skepticism greeted the first women astronauts.43
By the time of the 1984 missions, most of the unease had passed. Sally Ride had become the first American woman in space in a crew with four men, and Guy Bluford had become the first African American in space; both had acquitted themselves well on their 1983 missions. The number of women in the astronaut corps had almost doubled from six in 1978 to eleven by 1984, so it was clear that females were a growing presence. They worked hard to be perceived as astronauts, not women astronauts, to prove that the job was both sexless and genderless. The iconic image of the white male astronaut had been challenged. Yet much of the public had only vague awareness of shuttle astronauts and missions, which already seemed routine enough not to attract close media attention.
It was in this context that The Dream Is Alive matter-of-factly presented the unisex in-orbit life of astronauts. They had the same wardrobe: polo shirts and soft-cotton jeans trimmed in Velcro. They were equally likely to be taking photos or operating the robotic arm, preparing a meal, doing an experiment, or suiting up for a spacewalk. They shared a living space hardly larger than a group tent, as if they were friends on a camping trip. Their only modicum of privacy was in the small shared toilet alcove, so close to everything else in the cabin that it barely sufficed for modesty.
The scene described as this essay opened appeared about nine minutes into the thirty-seven-minute-long The Dream, after a shuttle landing and launch, after scenes of some of the thousands of shuttle workers, after views of the Earth from space, and after deployment of a large experiment. The astronauts appeared last, almost anticlimactically, in this introduction to shuttlestyle spaceflight. The billowing hair, bare legs, and central position in the frame drew the eye to the unnamed female astronaut (Judith Resnik) with perhaps a momentary surprise. The scene immediately flowed into another with two women and four men, and any surprise yielded to a sense of normalcy—why would there not be women and men in space?
While crewmembers seemed as comfortable together as family members, the narrator explained that the crew cabin was their living room, dining room, bedroom, workshop, and study. Within one minute the film dispensed with any anxiety about men and women in space together. In another scene a shirtless man (Steve Hawley) exercised on the space treadmill while two other men (Mike Mullane and Charlie Walker) worked on experiments just inches away. Then the crew was eating together in a circle as relaxed as on a picnic, playing with their food in weightlessness. The scene of the crew asleep showed each chastely zipped into a sleeping bag strapped to the walls of the cabin. The ordinary routines of life seemed little different in space.
The film also highlighted the astronauts’ work—deploying a communications satellite and an impressive solar array, flying the Manned Maneuvering Unit, retrieving and repairing the Solar Max satellite—and some of their training. As the film offered a guided tour of the shuttle and a survey of astronauts’ onboard activities, it was easy for viewers to feel as if they were floating beside the astronauts and to understand that “we can work in space” (narrator Cronkite’s emphasis). The film kept its focus on the stunning visuals as he intoned, “At last you can experience space as the astronauts do.”
The Dream Is Alive had a respectful tone without overt hero worship. Although Cronkite’s voice as narrator, so familiar from television in the Apollo era, implied a continuing story of heroic human spaceflight, his message, written in the preaccident glow of the early shuttle period, actually was quite different: “already people like you and me are beginning to travel into space” suggested that spaceflight was becoming routine enough for “ordinary people” to fly. Audiences may well have considered these astronauts to be heroes, especially after the Challenger tragedy only months later, but The Dream did not directly portray them as such. The narration for the climactic effort to grapple Solar Max out of orbit accented teamwork and competence, not heroics. The astronauts’ goal in filming themselves was to capture their shared experience matter-of-factly and to illustrate the message that seemingly ordinary people were now in space. Apart from a passing comment that thousands apply but few make it, the job and life of an astronaut appeared rather normal, albeit in an extraordinary setting.
Hubble 3D, filmed in part and written after the 2003 Columbia tragedy and toward the end of the shuttle program, had a more reflective, even valedictory script. This narration explicitly lauded the astronauts in one of the few emphatically editorial passages in the IMAX series. “In the last two decades thirty-two astronauts have put their own lives on the line to give life to Hubble. Each one of these men and women is a true hero.” Praising them again, narrator Leonardo DiCaprio observed that “in future journeys we’ll need all the amazing skills and teamwork of this crew, the same courage and inventiveness that has restored Hubble to its full capacity and beyond. They have exceeded every expectation.” Without a shuttle to fly the cameras, this was perhaps the last IMAX film shot in space. Ferguson, Myers, and the IMAX production team who had invested a good portion of their own careers working with astronauts evidently wanted to seal the legacy of shuttle era spacefarers with the heroic imprimatur. Only the last IMAX film offered such an overt heroic tribute.
Identity and Personality
In the course of the IMAX films, the astronauts became more interesting and personable by virtue of the ways they were identified and interacted with the camera. By comparison to the astronauts in Hubble 3D, those in The Dream seemed relatively restrained, self-conscious, and almost anonymous, as if each represented the “typical shuttle astronaut.” The first film had less self-revelation and improvisation than the last one in which each crewmember’s distinct personality lit the screen. Although the narrators always told the audience “we are there,” the relationship between astronaut and audience ranged from reserve to intimacy.
What made the difference? The manner of naming and speaking changed noticeably. In The Dream, astronauts were named almost as an afterthought, with only a brief mention of what each was doing. They went about their work and routines typically ignoring the camera and speaking to one another only in clipped phrases. The narrator told the audience what was happening. These shuttle crews seemed to be rather generic and interchangeable. Despite the audience’s illusion of being in space with them, in comparison to later films this one treated viewers more as observers than participants and astronauts more as a group than as individuals.
The later films relied more on the astronauts’ own words, first as voice-over and ultimately on camera. The second film, Blue Planet (1990), incorporated in audio two named but unseen astronauts musing about the awe of viewing Earth from space.44 So many astronauts filmed scenes for Destiny In Space (1994) that only a few could be identified in the narration, but all 50 names appeared in the credits. In Mission To Mir (1995), several identifiable astronauts’ voices, especially Shannon Lucid’s, supplemented the narrator’s with commentary throughout the film. Their unscripted conversational style added content and personality that heightened the viewers’ sense of proximity, even though the speakers were off camera.
This trend toward individuality culminated in the last two films for a more in-depth astronaut experience. Space Station 3D (2002) more liberally used astronauts’ commentary in lieu of narration. Their remarks became more introspective as they described their feelings and sense of meaning in spaceflight. Finally, Hubble 3D (2010) ventured into a more intimate interview-style encounter.45 Crew members had individual time on camera with their name and title shown on screen. Instead of offering disembodied voice-over comments, they looked directly at the camera (audience) and talked about what they did and how they felt about it. In long passages without a narrator’s intrusion, they asked each other questions, became pensive or teasing, and spoke frankly about their emotions. They were eloquently and comfortably “down to earth.”
Toni Myers always encouraged the astronauts to be themselves because she believed that in them “we see ourselves.”46 In the last film, as they revealed their distinct and engaging personalities, the dream that ordinary people can go into space still seemed alive. Although the narrator called them heroes, they really seemed more “like you and me”—interesting and lively human beings, not iconic figures. Yet that same film ended the series in a fusion of individualism and heroism. Ultimately, the IMAX films honored the trope of astronaut as hero.
The Reality of Risk
The Dream Is Alive opened with a shuttle landing, featured two launches, and ended with astronauts working outside high above Earth. Nowhere did the film explicitly acknowledge the risk inherent in riding a powerful rocket into space, living and working inside a complex but fragile spacecraft, or shooting back to Earth inside a fireball. Instead, the film conveyed the unbridled enthusiasm for routine spaceflight that pervaded the aerospace community in the early 1980s. Like Hail Columbia! and indeed like NASA and its aerospace team, The Dream had a buoyant spirit of confidence, if not naïveté.
Any illusions about safely routine spaceflight evaporated in an instant on January 28, 1986, when the tenth Challenger mission went horrifically awry just seconds into ascent. The Dream Is Alive had been showing in theaters for several months, and on the date of the Challenger crew’s quite public death another premiere of the film was scheduled in a new venue. Two members of the Challenger crew, Dick Scobee and Judy Resnik, had done much of the filming for The Dream on their 1984 missions, and Resnik was visible in the film. IMAX Corporation and the theaters faced a quandary: cancel showing the film or edit the scenes and credits? Instead of shrinking from the tragedy, theaters inserted a slide before each screening that dedicated it to the memory of the Challenger astronauts. In the following months, The Dream continued to draw audiences in a more reflective mood. In retrospect, The Dream seemed so innocent that one of NASA’s senior managers noted ruefully, “it would have been impossible to make a film about space which was so light and joyous and unself-conscious after the accident. Imagine the pressures from all of us and on all of us to make it serious, reverent, to make it ‘sell’ the program.” Nevertheless, in the immediate aftermath of the Challenger loss, The Dream Is Alive did “sell” human spaceflight on the shuttle; the film “is the only thing out there right now that keeps hammering away every day saying to millions of people that this program is right and wonderful and inevitable.”47
Had The Dream been filmed after the 1986 Challenger tragedy, at least one scene would very likely have been different. Both astronauts and scriptwriter avoided the obvious in filming Kathy Sullivan and David Leestma suiting up together for a spacewalk—one of the most dangerous mission tasks. As both appeared in their long johns liquid cooling undergarments with Dave’s urine collection belt visible and Kathy’s padded rear suggesting the diaper she was likely wearing, there were no words about risk or courage. Instead, narrator Cronkite commented that “already people like you and me are beginning to travel into space” and soon will inhabit a space station. He went on to predict that our children may live in space and their children may be born there. An audience might be forgiven for naively seeing only two people almost mundanely dressing for work, not heroes braving the dangers of space. Might some viewers have felt anxiety about the unspoken subtext—the risk of death in spaceflight?
This silence was not broken until Space Station 3D (2002) addressed risk, not once, but repeatedly. In the opening sequence, viewers were startled to see a spacewalk go wrong as an untethered astronaut drifted away from an extravehicular activity (EVA) worksite. While narrator Tom Cruise spoke about the risks of working in space, the scene shifted to a virtual reality lab to reveal that the emergency was a training simulation, one of many designed to prepare crews to deal with those hazards. Risk came up again as spacewalkers tested their emergency rescue device and again in the narrator’s closing comments that expanding knowledge in space is “worth all the risks”—a line that became tragically meaningful when Columbia’s final crew died coming home from their science mission while this film was showing in theaters. Since the 1986 Challenger accident, the inherent danger of spaceflight could not be ignored, but it was barely hinted at in IMAX films until fifteen years later.
Hubble 3D also made risk a main theme by opening with the line, “Seven brave astronauts are about to embark on the most challenging and risky mission ever flown in space.”48 The narration and visuals accented the risk to the telescope and to the astronauts in the complicated EVA tasks, building suspense until their celebration of a difficult mission accomplished. As noted earlier, this film went a further step to tell the audience that these astronauts were heroes, a reminder that spaceflight was not, in fact, routine. Previous IMAX films had not alluded to the Challenger tragedy, but this one mentioned the Columbia loss and showed a very brief clip of the debris meteor shower. Ending the series on a heroic note made a subtle salute to the deceased spacefarers as well as the Hubble crews.
As the Astronauts See It
The initial impetus for the IMAX films had been to capture spaceflight and views of Earth as the astronauts see it. Although the film projects adhered to the goal of portraying astronaut experiences as they really were, they also gradually introduced new techniques that exceeded the astronauts’ direct experience. After the first set of IMAX flights, NASA granted permission to add a camera in the shuttle’s payload bay to record the astronauts’ spacewalking experience. Shooting outside the confines of the crew cabin permitted wide-angle views of Earth and a sense of floating free in space with “you are there” fidelity. Extravehicular activities tend to be dramatic episodes within a mission, and the payload bay camera bore witness to the thrill and the physicality of spacewalking as if seen through the astronauts’ eyes (Figure 3). Mounting the exterior camera on a small retrievable satellite, however, yielded a panorama of the entire orbiter against Earth and space, a view that the astronauts could not see on their own.
As the art of computer-generated special effects and visualization advanced, the space film producers ventured from their initial documentary style toward a format with more artifice. This kept the films on the frontier of theatrical novelty and added to their thrill factor but also moved them away from a fully realistic presentation of spaceflight as the astronauts saw and experienced it. In a striking departure, Destiny In Space (1994) introduced scientifically credible computer-generated flights over other planetary terrains, well beyond the experience of contemporary crews. Hubble 3D (2010) ventured vastly farther from the astronauts’ point of view and experience in a cosmic journey via supercomputer manipulation of astronomical images.
FIGURE 3. Installation of a remotely controlled IMAX camera in the shuttle’s payload bay permitted wide-angle views of the Earth and astronauts at work, like this scene from its first flight on the STS 61-B mission in 1985. © 1990 Lockheed Martin Corporation and Smithsonian Institution from the IMAX® film Blue Planet.
Space Station 3D (2002) introduced the 3-D viewing experience in a space film.49 Although it was not obvious to viewers, the filmmaking crew spent more time planning and rehearsing their shots than previous crews, in part to adjust to the requirements of 3-D. They deliberately choreographed certain actions for the 3-D illusion, floating items toward the camera or setting up action in different depths of field. Although IMAX had always promoted the films as real experience, not artifice, the camera technology itself made some rehearsal advisable. Besides the special needs of 3-D, some complex shots required staging and rehearsal simply to ensure they could be captured correctly in one take. On rare occasions, a fairly trivial but credible action was faked; for example, the IMAX camera was so loud that no one could really sleep while being filmed (Figure 4).50
Astronauts and The IMAX Experience®
The Dream Is Alive reigned for many years as the most popular of the IMAX space films, attracting 48.6 million theater viewers by 2012.51 It effectively introduced the space shuttle, the new generation of astronauts, and the realities of contemporary human spaceflight to the world. It also gave viewers the “Aha!” experience of spaceflight, almost as if they were astronauts themselves. Each later film extended that experience in some new dimension, by focusing on the views of Earth from space (Blue Planet), scientific research and planetary exploration (Destiny In Space), life on a Russian space station (Mission To Mir), the International Space Station (Space Station 3D), and cosmic exploration (Hubble 3D).
FIGURE 4. Astronauts used an even larger 3-D IMAX camera on the International Space Station to document their activity inside and outside the orbital research center. Astronaut Bill Shepard is checking a shot on the monitor attached to the camera. Courtesy of NASA.
These six productions had a first-class luster that elevated the astronauts’ film work to an award-winning professional level. Shown primarily in museums and similar education venues rather than commercial theaters, the IMAX films had widely successful box office appeal after their premieres at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. All were well reviewed for both the extraordinary scenery and the immersive experience of spaceflight.52 The Dream Is Alive fulfilled expectations for delivering to audiences the astronauts’ experience of living and working in space. The later films enhanced that experience and the image of spacefarers by capturing all kinds of activities in space and encouraging the astronauts to reflect on how it felt and what it meant to be in space.
As a set, these films presented a remarkable range of astronaut experiences. Audiences had behind-the-scenes glimpses of activities and facilities they were unlikely ever to witness directly: zero-gravity training and underwater simulation, launch control and mission control rooms, Star City and the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the suit-up room and launch tower white room, the astronauts’ many workplaces. Viewers saw them working hard, relaxing, being reflective, and being funny. Each film vividly showed what the job of astronaut entailed, satisfying curiosity with familiarity by opening the spaceflight experience to all.
The IMAX films also revealed more about the astronauts (and cosmonauts) than simply how they lived and worked. The films presented the new norm of men and women, Americans and other nationalities, working together companionably in space. Interesting as their daily routines and challenges were, their own words were even more captivating. In successive films, the astronauts became a more vocal presence, sharing their own personal reflections to complement the scripted narration. Personalities and perspectives gave audiences new insight into the spaceflight experience and perhaps also into commonalities that enabled viewers to think “that could be me.” The shuttle era had been heralded as the age when spaceflight might become possible for ordinary people. Although actual flights of nonastronauts were few, through the IMAX films, millions of ordinary people “went” into space. And still do. Viewers now enjoy the IMAX spacefaring films in the comfort of home on a flat screen television or computer monitor via high-definition DVDs with Dolby digital sound, in a choice of languages and with a menu of interviews and other bonus features. Sales remain brisk online and in IMAX venues.
Since Michael Collins’ 1976 proposal to put an IMAX camera on the shuttle through release of this six-film series, the constant goal was to present spaceflight as the astronauts experienced it and show Earth as they saw it. A corollary was to let the spacefarers be themselves, not to shape them into types or icons or idealized heroes. During the thirty years of shuttle spaceflight, commercial filmmakers never attempted a realistic treatment of this rich subject. When the shuttle rarely appeared in Hollywood films, the plots were improbable, and the astronauts were caricatures.53 Whereas Apollo 13 (1995) won deserved praise for recreating the reality of that mission, IMAX films captured reality directly, without recreation. In the court of public opinion as well as critical reviews from many quarters, the IMAX films accomplished their mission. To the astronauts belongs the ultimate credit for bringing spaceflight down to Earth.
Notes
IMAX® and The IMAX Experience® are registered trademarks of IMAX Corporation.
1. This film will be referred to as either The Dream Is Alive or The Dream throughout the essay. Total recorded theater attendance for the first six months after release of The Dream Is Alive totaled 2.6 million in 17 venues in the United States and Canada. By 2012, 42.6 million viewers had seen The Dream in theaters worldwide, and total attendance for the six filmed-in-space IMAX documentaries reached almost 100.7 million; IMAX correspondence with the author, October 2012.
2. Footage shot on the space shuttle at the same time in Cinema 360, a 35mm dome-screen format, resulted in a program shown in several planetariums.
3. The primary source of records of IMAX space films is Graeme Ferguson and his wife Phyllis Ferguson. He coinvented the IMAX technology, cofounded IMAX Corporation, served as its CEO, and directed and produced many IMAX films on various subjects. The space films became his special project for more than thirty years, and his imprint is on all of them. Both Fergusons were actively involved in every technical, artistic, and administrative aspect of The Dream Is Alive and its successors, and their files contain almost daily accounts of the progress of the projects. This account draws heavily from their papers, certain ones of which are cited, as well as an oral history project with Graeme Ferguson and the author’s series of interviews with both Fergusons in 2010–2012. The narrative arc of The Dream project is so pervasive that it cannot easily be attributed to particular documents. Instead, this blanket acknowledgment of the Fergusons as the primary source of The Dream Is Alive story must suffice. Other sources are cited separately.
4. In the first years of shuttle flights, NASA issued a series of “Going to Work in Space” posters and various public outreach materials with similar titles. The theme of working in space permeated the shuttle era from President Nixon’s 1972 statement on the decision to develop a shuttle to the final shuttle mission in 2011.
5. IMAX Corporation provided four cameras for spaceflight. On the 1984 missions, only an in-cabin camera flew; then in 1985 a second camera was mounted in the payload bay for wide-angle shots of the Earth and extravehicular activity. In 2000 IMAX replaced these 2-D cameras with two 3-D cameras, one in the cabin and one in the payload bay. Astronauts operated all cameras, those in cabin in hands-on mode and the ones in the payload bay by remote control.
6. Vincent Canby, “ ‘Big Screen’ Takes on New Meaning,” New York Times, April 19, 1987.
7. Glenn Whipp, review of Hubble 3D, Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2010.
8. Roger Ebert, “Hubble 3D: A Journey into Time and Space,” Chicago Sun Times, April 21, 2010; Jennifer Merin, “Heading for Hubble and Beyond,” http://documentaries.about.com/od/revie2/fr/Hubble_3D_Movie_Review.htm (accessed March 15, 2012).
9. Justin Chang, review of Hubble 3D, Variety, March 14, 2010.
10. Michael Collins, Director, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, to Dr. Joseph P. Allen, NASA Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs, November 17, 1976, acknowledged by Allen’s return letter dated December 20, 1976, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 338, Box 4, IMAX file, Washington, DC (hereafter referred to as SIA).
11. A similar IMAX theater system called Omnimax, modified for projection on a planetarium dome, debuted a few months earlier in 1973 at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in San Diego.
12. Recounted by Graeme Ferguson in IMAX Oral History interview by David Cobb and Loral Dean, November 7–8, 2000, transcript, pp. 90–91. Graeme and Phyllis Ferguson, personal collection.
13. The National Air and Space Museum built the third institutional theater, following the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in San Diego (1973) and the Living History Center in Philadelphia (early 1976). Two of the six theaters were in theme parks (Circus World in Orlando, 1974, and Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, 1975), and the other was the temporary theater in the Spokane World Expo (1974). Graeme Ferguson, communiqué to author, December 20, 2011.
14. Graeme Ferguson, President, IMAX Systems Corporation, to Chester M. Lee, NASA Director of STS Operations, July 5, 1978, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 4, IMAX file.
15. Memorandum from NASA Director, STS Operations, to Chief, Launch Agreements and Customer Services, “Position on Filming Aboard the Shuttle,” October 4, 1978, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 4, IMAX file.
16. Graeme Ferguson and Toni Myers, correspondence with author, March 27, 2012.
17. “Hail Columbia! Featured at NASA’s 25th Birthday Party,” IMAX Projections Newsletter, January 1984, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 13, IMAX file; Ferguson, IMAX Oral History, transcript pp. 126–29.
18. The IMAX films produced by the four-way collaboration of IMAX, the National Air and Space Museum, NASA, and Lockheed were The Dream Is Alive (1985), Blue Planet (1990), and Destiny In Space (1994). IMAX and NASA cooperated in producing three more: Mission To Mir (1997), Space Station 3D (2002), and Hubble 3D (2010), with Lockheed sponsoring Mission To Mir and Space Station 3D. (Warner Bros. Pictures cofinanced and codistributed Hubble 3D.) Toni Myers of IMAX wrote all of these films, edited all but one of them, narrated Blue Planet, and directed and produced both 3-D films. Graeme Ferguson directed The Dream Is Alive (and Hail Columbia!) and produced or coproduced all of the space films.
19. Each of the films opened with a statement screen, “Presented as a Public Service.” According to Graeme Ferguson, the project team never anticipated that the films would be profitable because filming in space was far more expensive than regular IMAX shoots and there were at the time too few theaters to turn a profit. While successful films would fill those theaters and bring revenue to the museums and parks, IMAX and Lockheed hoped at best to break even and earn back the production costs. Lockheed decided that the only feasible way to fund successive films was to roll over any proceeds from one into producing the next. Over time, Lockheed did not quite recover its initial investment but continued to view sponsorship as a public service. The ultimate goal of the IMAX Corporation in the collaboration was to grow the market for new theaters, not to make a profit on the films per se. Graeme Ferguson, interview with author, January 28, 2012.
20. The title came from John Young’s comment at the STS-1 postmission press conference, spoken near the end of Hail Columbia!: “The dream is alive again. Let’s keep it that way.”
21. Ferguson, IMAX Oral History, 131–32. IMAX had thought about modifying the camera for use in space, but astronaut Bruce McCandless advised that they would rather work with a tried-and-true device than run the risk of problems with a new one. This anecdote reported in the Baltimore Evening Sun review by Steve McKerrow was mistakenly attributed to astronaut Joe Allen rather than Bruce McCandless (June 20, 1985).
22. STS 41-C in April, STS 41-D in August–September, and STS 41-G in October, all in 1984. These were the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth shuttle missions, with Challenger and Discovery flying five times that year.
23. “A General Statement of Conditions and Proposed Letter of Agreement,” undated and unsigned on National Air and Space Museum letterhead; probably composed by Director Walter Boyne or the museum’s Public Affairs Chief Brian Duff in 1983. SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 23, Dream Is Alive file; The Dream Is Alive agreement with Lockheed and attached narrative, July 31, 1984, SIA, Accession 04-092, NASM, Exhibits Production Records, Dream Is Alive file.
24. “A General Statement of Conditions and Proposed Letter of Agreement,” SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 23, Dream Is Alive file.
25. The story of these preparations is recorded in an IMAX presentation “Preparing the IMAX Camera for Space.” Graeme and Phyllis Ferguson, personal collection.
26. Museum Director Walter Boyne to IMAX President Graeme Ferguson, June 27, 1984; Museum Associate Director for External Affairs Brian Duff to NASA JSC Director of Public Affairs Harold Stall, July 13, 1984; Brian Duff to The Dream team members, memorandum, July 20, 1984; Lockheed Vice President H. David Crowther to NASA Administrator James M. Beggs, July 2, 1984. All in SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 23, Dream Is Alive file. Also see letters of appreciation from Museum Director Walter Boyne to the crews of shuttle missions 41-C, 41-D, and 41-G, October 2, 1984, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 13, Dream Is Alive file.
27. Evidently, there was never an effort to fly an IMAX expert on the shuttle as a payload specialist to do the filming. The IMAX training team was convinced that the astronauts were highly capable for the task, and this confidence was amply rewarded by spectacular camera work. Ferguson, IMAX Oral History, 152, and correspondence with author, December 9, 2011.
28. Toni Myers, IMAX writer/editor/producer, telephone interview with author, November 18, 2011; “Adventures in Space,” special feature produced in association with Creative Domain, Space Station, DVD, directed by Toni Myers (Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2005). IMAX cinematographers, notably James Neihouse and David Douglas, also led astronaut training sessions and participated in the production of the films, as did sound experts Ben Burtt and Greg Smith. Burtt also served as principal director of Blue Planet.
29. Myers, telephone interview with author; “Adventures in Space.”
30. Toni Myers and Marsha Ivins, “Commentary,” Space Station; Ferguson, interview with author. Film rolls shot three minutes of footage for the in-cabin camera and eight minutes for the cargo bay camera; Graeme Ferguson, correspondence with author, March 31, 2012.
31. Ferguson, interview with author.
32. Marsha Ivins, “Commentary,” Space Station.
33. The Dream Is Alive storyboards, IMAX Systems Corporation, 1983, Graeme and Phyllis Ferguson, personal collection.
34. “The Dream Is Alive—Narrative,” attached to film project agreement, SIA Accession 04-092, The Dream Is Alive Agreement.
35. Correspondence between Museum Director Walter Boyne and CBS News chief Walter Cronkite, May–June 1983, and between the museum’s Associate Director for External Affairs, Brian Duff, and Mr. Cronkite’s agent, Tom Stix, August–October 1984, and from IMAX President Graeme Ferguson and Walter Boyne in February and August 1985, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 23, Cronkite file.
36. There were five astronauts per mission, but Robert Crippen flew twice as commander (STS 41-C and STS 41-G). In addition, three payload specialists who had no IMAX duties were aboard: Charles Walker (STS 41-D) and Marc Garneau and Paul Scully-Power (STS 41-G).
37. Charles W. Smith, “It’s Colossal! It’s Stupendous! It’s IMAX!” Reader’s Digest, August 1985, 87; Ferguson, IMAX Oral History, transcript, p. 152.
38. “Inside IMAX Hubble 3D,” Hubble, DVD, directed by Toni Myers (Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 2010).
39. “Adventures in Space.”
40. See the chapter by Matthew H. Hersch in this volume.
41. Joseph D. Atkinson Jr. and Jay M. Shafritz, The Real Stuff: A History of NASA’s Astronaut Recruitment Program (New York: Praeger, 1985).
42. Amy E. Foster, Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
43. See the chapter by Jennifer Ross-Nazzal in this volume.
44. The voices of Charlie Bolden and Jim Buchli speaking extemporaneously about their impressions of Earth from space were identified in the narration.
45. Footage for Hubble 3D was shot by the crews of STS-31 (1990), STS-61 (1993), and STS-125 (2009). The STS-125 crew shot 3-D footage; footage from the two earlier flights, shot for Destiny In Space, was converted to 3-D for use in the Hubble film.
46. Toni Myers’ comment in notes from the October 2, 1985, planning session. Graeme and Phyllis Ferguson, personal collection. She always advocated for the human connection between audience and astronauts’ experience; Toni Myers, interview with author, November 11, 2011.
47. Brian Duff, NASA Associate Director for External Affairs, to Stephen Chaudet, Lockheed Corp. Director of Public Affairs, May 6, 1986, SIA, Record Unit 338, Box 22, Dream Is Alive file.
48. This is an arguable assertion in light of the high-risk Apollo lunar missions.
49. Footage for Space Station 3D was shot by the crews of STS-88 (1998), STS-92 and STS-97 (2000), STS-98, STS-102, STS-100, and STS-104 (four successive missions in 2001), and ISS Expeditions 1 and 2 (2000–2001).
50. Several of the Space Station 3D participants talked about these matters in “Adventures in Space.”
51. Space Station 3D held second place with 20.1 million viewers in its first ten years. These figures do not include VHS and DVD sales. IMAX correspondence with author, October 2012.
52. The Dream Is Alive Three-Year Report (IMAX Corporation Document, 1988) includes a digest of reviews. Praise from NASA Administrator James Beggs and others eased the way for the following films.
53. Notably, Moonraker (1979), SpaceCamp (1986), Armageddon (1998), Deep Impact (1998), and Space Cowboys (2000). See the chapter by Matthew H. Hersch in this volume.