360-degree videos have continued to elevate in quality and ambition since inception from light experiments to full on news broadcasts across the globe, so where do they go now? Further up, of course, so far up they exit our atmosphere.
For the first time ever, Russian global news network RT has recorded a 360-degree video in outer space. Cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko will be guiding a 360-degree documentary showing life on the International Space Station and the zero-g clip you’ll find below comes from that project.
“Space 360 is a fantastic project. It’s been an incredible collaboration,” says Borisenko. “This is the first time in history we are making an immersive video of the station. This will give the viewers an opportunity to see everything here the way we see it, and get an idea of what it feels like to be a cosmonaut.”
Eduard Chizhikov, a leader on RT’s 360-media production team, says that the project’s task is to “combine education and entertainment” which is something many companies have been doing with 360-degree media. It doesn’t exactly give us an overwhelming amount of information that can’t be found in 2D media, but it provides a new and engaging way for us to take in the visuals, especially when using VR headsets for the experience.
Over time, Borisenko will record and release 360 videos that show different areas of the International Space Station, its different modules, and the different processes that take place aboard the vessel. These videos are the flagship of the Space 360 program, a partnership between RT, Roscosmos, and rocket and space corporation Energia. The head of Energia’s scientific-technical center, Alexander Kaleri, is serving as space consultant for the project. The Space 360 videos can be viewed on RT’s app which is available on Google Play, the Apple App Store, and Oculus Home in six different languages (English, Russian, Spanish, French, German and Arabic).
