SpaceX to launch virtual reality spacecraft on later ISS mission – Florida Today

SpaceVR, a small spacecraft with eight cameras, will help deliver a virtual reality experience to Earth after it launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2017. Wochit

SpaceVR's Overview 1 virtual reality satellite.(Photo: SpaceVR)

A spacecraft outfitted with high-resolution cameras willdeliver an astronaut-like virtual reality experience to the ground after it launches to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket later this year.

The small spacecraft,named Overview 1,will capture its surroundings in low Earth orbitwith eight cameras after it launches from the Space Coastaboard a Falcon 9 rocket in September. Thefootage will be transmitted to the ground before Overview 1 meets a fiery demise upon reentry into the atmosphere.

SpaceVR, the San Francisco-based startup in charge of designing the spacecraft, willinitially distribute the footage for the HTC Vive, a virtual reality headset. Founder and CEO Ryan Holmes said the footage will eventually come to "all major platforms" that support VR video, such as YouTube and Facebook.

[SpaceX next up on Eastern Range with Falcon 9 NRO launch]

As is the case with other VR experiences, users are not always required to use aheadset they can also pan, tilt and zoom using a mouseor by moving a smartphone around the scene.

Holmes, a native of Port. St. Lucie, credits the "Overview Effect" for inspiration behind founding the company.

"The Overview Effect is when astronauts go into space and they experience feeling what it's like to live amongst an infinite universe," Holmes told FLORIDA TODAY. "We saw that as one of the best experiences one could possibly have. So we sought to allow people to experience it through virtual reality by launching the world's first virtual reality satellite."

Initiallydescribed by "Overview Effect" author Frank White, NASA's Lunar Science Institute describes thephenomenon as "an experience that transforms astronauts perspective of the planet and mankinds place upon it."

As the company's first spacecraft, Overview 1's flight and the resulting footage is intended to be a technical demonstration of its capabilities. The company benefitted from a investment push in April 2016 and secured $1.25 million for the project.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A on Thursday, March 30, 2017.(Photo: SpaceX)

The tentative September launch will be SpaceX's thirteenth launch under theCommercial Resupply Services contract, known as CRS-13. Like previous launches, the company's Dragon spacecraftwill deliver equipment, supplies and science experiments to the crew of the ISS.

SpaceVR signed the launch agreement with NanoRacks, which will use itsCubeSat Deployer to release Overview 1 to low Earth orbit after Dragon arrives at the ISS. The loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft was built by Pumpkin, which is also based in San Francisco.

SpaceX, meanwhile, is targeting Sunday for the launch of a classified intelligence satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. It's the first such mission by SpaceX for the NRO, which will take flight on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A during a two-hour window that opens at 7 a.m. A first stage landing is expected at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone 1 shortly after liftoff.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 with a Cygnus spacecraft for the International Space Station.

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In a historic first for the company and the industry, SpaceX launched and landed a "flight proven," or refurbished, Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

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A Delta IV rocket carrying the military's WGS-9 satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday, March 18, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. The first stage returned for a successful landing in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the SBIRS missile detection satellite on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

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Atlas V rocket blasts off on mission with Cygnus spacecraft

SpaceX launches, lands 'flight proven' Falcon 9

Delta IV rocket launches from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center

Falcon 9 blasts off from KSC, lands at Cape

Atlas V rocket blasts off with missile detection satellite

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SpaceX to launch virtual reality spacecraft on later ISS mission - Florida Today