–

ALMOST THERE: I went to see the new IMAX space film, “Space Station 3-D” last week.

Wow. Now I understand why the space tourists are willing to shell out $20M to spend a week there — I suspect many viewers will have a similar reaction, which will only generate more interest in space tourism. NASA (despite itself, one imagines) could hardly have come up with a better sales pitch for the budding industry.

I had some bad moments with the 3-D (a couple of eye-crossing jump cuts, ouch, hard on the eyes), but overall the depth element is a useful addition to the film. For example, the shot from “above” looking down on the ISS and the Earth looked much more realistic than any equivalent photograph, conveying some of the sensation of scale that astronauts often try to describe in their accounts of the “space travel experience” — you know about how big the station is, but with the 3-D element, you can somewhat feel how fast everything is moving and how big the planet is.

As far as subject material, it is inclined towards the general/layman audience (as one would expect), but if you know what to look for it’s chock full of interesting technical detail. For instance, in the scenes where Destiny and Raphaello are extracted from the Shuttle’s cargo bay, and where racks are transferred through Unity and into Destiny, you can see a lot of the hardware, mounting fixtures, grapple fixtures, etc. — even the interior of the RMS end effector — to a level of detail that you normally do not see even in official reference materials.

One of the more entertaining parts of the film is the launch of the Proton rocket carrying Zvezda, which was filmed by an IMAX camera located on the launch platform, perhaps ten yards from the rocket itself. This is perhaps the best IMAXed launch I have seen, even if it isn’t as loud or as fiery as the Shuttle launch in, say, Destiny in Space. Another very entertaining (and shocking) part of the film is the sendoff for the Expedition One crew, in which hundreds of workers and well-wishers thronged around the launch pad when the crew arrived for launch — while the Soyuz rocket was fully fueled and ready for launch, with ice on the loaded LOx tanks not ten feet away. Compare this with procedures for the Shuttle, where you have perhaps two dozen people within three miles of the launch pad while the vehicle is tanking and the crew is being strapped in. Seeing this, one can understand how something like the Nedelin Catastrophe might have occurred.

The film is well worth seeing.