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Montreal, Canada, New York, NY and Houston, TX - October 5, 2020 - Felix & Paul Studios, the EMMY-award winning creator of immersive entertainment experiences, TIME Studios, TIME's EMMY-award winning television and film division, and Nanoracks, the leading provider of commercial access to space, today announced the successful delivery of Felix & Paul Studios' customized 3D, 360-degree, Space Camera to the International Space Station via the NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft, the S.S. Kalpana Chawla. The Space Camera will be used to capture the first-ever spacewalk filmed in cinematic virtual reality as the culmination of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, produced by Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios. 

"An immersive series titled 'The ISS Experience' would not be complete without taking viewers along for the ultimate ride: a spacewalk outside the International Space Station side by side with two real astronauts," said F?lix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios and Emmy-winning creative director of the Space Explorers series. "Our Space Camera, purpose-built to capture this historic event in fully-immersive 3D, brings us one step closer to our goal of taking billions of minds to space, and having them experience a spacewalk as if they were astronauts themselves."

Felix & Paul Studios' state-of-the-art Space Camera - a Z-Cam V1 Pro camera consisting of nine 4K sensors allowing for a 3D, 360-degree image at 8K resolution - has been specially hardened by Nanoracks to withstand the harsh conditions of low atmosphere orbit, including vacuum, solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, charged particle (ionizing) radiation, plasma, surface charging and arcing, temperature extremes, thermal cycling, impacts from micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD), and environment-induced contamination.  

The Space Camera can store approximately 15 hours of 3D, 360-degree footage with custom lenses made to withstand extreme light and heat to minimize flare when directly exposed to the Sun. The International Space Station travels at 17,100 miles per hour with 16 sunrises and sunsets per day and external temperatures ranging from -250? F to +250? F. 

"Getting this camera to space was the culmination of five years of exceedingly hard work. Only 228 humans have ever conducted a spacewalk. It is one of the most thrilling yet perilous tasks an astronaut can undertake," said Jonathan Woods, Executive Producer for The ISS 

Experience at TIME Studios and Emmy-winning producer of A Year in Space. "When I first reached out to pitch this idea to NASA in 2016, my goal was to spare viewers on Earth the perilous part while allowing them to enjoy the thrill by filming the first-ever spacewalk in Virtual Reality. Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of people around the world, working in collaboration with the brilliant Felix & Paul Studios, NASA, Nanoracks and the ISS National Lab, the VR experience that results will have made all of the work very much worth it."

Nanoracks' expertise in EVA satellite deployment systems enabled them to design a hermetically sealed, radiation resistant aluminum shield enclosure for the Space Camera, built to last up to a minimum of 7 days in the environment of space.  An active heating system as well as a passive cooling system were also integrated into the enclosure to manage the internal camera system's temperature fluctuations. 

"This may well be one of the most complex and exciting projects that we have ever worked on at Nanoracks," says Conor Brown, Senior Manager of Nanoracks Program Office. "We're seeing creative commercial utilization of the ISS in full force - leveraging our platform built for deploying satellites and converting it into a VR camera mount that can be robotically manipulated to follow along with a spacewalk like never before. We are beyond excited to play such a pivotal role in bringing perhaps the most adventurous and extreme activity a human being can ever do to viewers all over the world."

To capture the spacewalk featured in Episode 4 of The ISS Experience, the Space Camera will be mounted and powered via the Nanoracks' Kaber MicroSatellite Deployer and maneuvered around the outside of the International Space Station by Canadarm2, the Canadian robotic arm on the ISS. Canadarm2 will essentially function like a crane on a movie set, enabling the Space Camera to capture the spacewalk in fully-immersive virtual reality, bringing viewers alongside the astronauts as if they were part of the crew. 

Stills of the Space Camera can be found here. The first two episodes of the Space Explorers series - Space Explorers: A New Dawn and Space Explorers: Taking Flight - are available in fully-immersive virtual reality on the Oculus Store. 

July 22, 2020 - Torino, Italy- Nanoracks Space Outpost Europe (Nanoracks-Europe), based in Torino, Italy and Rina Consulting SpA - two innovative European space companies, are teaming with DreamUp, PBC to provide space-based educational opportunities to students in Italy impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with fast-tracked funding support from the European Space Agency.

The onset of COVID-19 has forced countless students worldwide to learn from home, bringing unprecedented change to the educational landscape, providing major challenges, yet also unique opportunities.

The team is launching the development of DreamCoderT 2.0, an innovative computer engineering education program providing students the opportunity to develop and execute code on a platform installed on the International Space Station. Utilizing this platform, installed in a Nanoracks Nanolab, students can gather data on various conditions such as humidity, temperature, and acceleration, to answer original research questions about human spaceflight and the conditions of the Space Station. Rina Consulting SpA, will provide technological expertise for the updated DreamCoder 2.0 infrastructure and cloud computing element, which will open DreamCoder to the home-learning environment.

To meet this challenge, the European Space Agency (ESA), through their ESA Space Solutions program, announced the funding opportunity "Space in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak" in collaboration with the Italian Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitalization, the Italian Space Agency and other European countries.

Through utilization of both current DreamCoder hardware installed on the Space Station via Nanoracks (US), and the development and improvement of the ground-based classroom hardware known as the "Sagan Spacelab," via ESA, DreamCoder 2.0 will allow a unique global public-private partnership in the name of space and STEM education.

"Space applications can play an important role in creating innovative services for education, says Liz Barrow, Technical Officer for ESA Space Solutions. "We look forward to the development of DreamCoder 2.0 and motivating students through space!"

In order to implement DreamCoder 2.0, Nanoracks-Europe will engage with a user community of Italian supporters and stakeholders, including high schools in cities such as Torino, Rome, Lecce, and Ronciglione; schools in rural municipalities such as Teggiano; and in universities located in research and development centers such as Napoli and Rome.

"With kids learning from home around the world due to COVID-19, we're looking for new and innovative way to keep students engaged with space education," says DreamUp Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Lauren Milord. "We couldn't be more thrilled to be collaborating with our friends at Nanoracks in Europe, as well as with new partners, to ensure that Italian students will have access to cutting-edge, and groundbreaking space education, regardless of where they learn"

"This is an absolutely exciting opportunity for Nanoracks-Europe to make a difference in the lives of our local students during this unique time," says Nanoracks-Europe's Director of Global Engagement, Veronica La Regina. "Space exploration inspires our younger generation to dream big, and it's important that those dreams remain achievable from home even when the classroom is not available to Italian students. Thank you to our partners at ESA, the Italian Space Agency, Rina Consulting SpA, and the Italian Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitalization for making this advancement possible!"

Nanoracks-Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of XO Markets. DreamCoderT is a registered Trademark by DreamUp, PBC.

For additional updates, follow @nanoracks and @dreamup_space on Twitter.

November 10, 2020 - Abu Dhabi, UAE - Today, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has announced that they are partnering with Nanoracks via their Agriculture Technology (AgTech) Incentive Program, an effort that supports the development of cutting-edge programs to boost the emirate's AgTech capabilities and promote innovation. 

As the largest commercial user of the International Space Station, Nanoracks is building the first-ever commercial space research program. Nanoracks is seeking through innovations in space-based AgTech to solve key food sustainability challenges on Earth, mostly caused by climate change, which can help to 'green the desert.' The incentives from ADIO will allow Nanoracks to build the first StarLab Space Farming Center in Abu Dhabi as a commercial space research center. The Center will be focused on advancing knowledge and technology about organisms and food that are produced in the harsh and alien environment of space.

You can read the full announcement here: https://nanoracks.com/nanoracks-adio-agtech-announcement

You can read an in-depth question and answer interview with CEO Jeffrey Manber here: https://nanoracks.com/agtech-adio-question-answer

Press Release Excerpt from ADIO:

Abu Dhabi's AgTech ecosystem expands across land, sea and Three innovative agriculture companies will develop cutting-edge projects in Abu Dhabi to boost the emirate's agriculture technology (AgTech) capabilities across land, sea and space. The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) announced today individual partnerships with Pure Harvest Smart Farms (Pure Harvest), FreshToHome and Nanoracks that will see the companies receive financial and non-financial incentives totalling AED 152 million (USD 41 million). The research and technologies developed by these companies will expand existing capabilities in Abu Dhabi's AgTech ecosystem and promote innovation in the sector to address global food security challenges...

...US-based Nanoracks, the single largest commercial user of the International Space Station, opened its first UAE office in Abu Dhabi's global tech ecosystem, Hub71, in 2019. Nanoracks is building the first-ever commercial AgTech space research programme, the 'StarLab Space Farming Center', in Abu Dhabi as a commercial space research facility focused on advancing knowledge and technology for organisms and food produced in space and in equally extreme climates on Earth. The space-based technology will be applied to desert agriculture to address pressing environmental and food security challenges and to benefit long-term human space exploration.

Allen Herbert, SVP of Business Development and Strategy, and Head of Nanoracks, UAE, said: "Much of today's technology used for vertical, urban and closed environment agriculture initially came from space research from 30 years ago, and Nanoracks is ready to synergise these technologies back to in-space exploration. We firmly believe that space research holds the keys to solving major challenges on Earth from climate change to food security. And our StarLab Space Farming Center in Abu Dhabi is just the beginning. We're building a global research and development team that will produce and commercialise organisms, technology, and innovative products that will not only revolutionise farming in Earth's deserts and harsh environments, but also change the way humans are able to explore deeper into our universe."