When the last shuttle landed in 2011, it was actually the beginning of a new era of human spaceflight, with new mission preparations by NASA and the international space community which will take astronauts beyond low earth orbit back to the moon, to asteroids, and to Mars within a generation.
Journey to Space puts the enormous contributions of the shuttle program into an historical context of humankind’s continuing aspiration to explore the unknown, and provides a visually stunning scenario developed by leading experts on exactly how astronauts will get to Mars, live there for 2 years, and safely return to earth.
The film will both inspire a new generation of young people to dream of new horizons in space, and foster a new appreciation for the accomplishments of the shuttle program among an older generation who came to take it for granted.
“Journey To Space,” from K2 Communications and Giant Screen Films, tells the true exciting story of what the next chapter of space exploration holds for both the near- and long-term. “Journey To Space,” presented by The Boeing Company and Toyota, showcases the plans by NASA and the larger space community to land astronauts on Mars.
“I don’t know if I will ever get to walk on Mars, but I may already know some of those who will,” a female voiceover says in the first trailer for “Journey To Space,” released on Thursday (Dec. 11).
“No longer science fiction, a human mission to Mars is in the planning stages, and major steps are being taken to make it a reality within a generation,” Bob Kresser, chief executive officer of K2 Films, said. “Our goal in making this film was to tie together the actual hardware being built with the tremendous planning under way that will make the next steps in space exploration the most far-reaching in our history.”
In addition to looking forward, “Journey To Space” also looks back at the shuttle program and the role it played in assembling the International Space Station. A third of the movie is devoted to showing how the space shuttle helped us understand how to live and operate in space.
“We are completing a chapter of a journey that will never end,” astronaut Chris Ferguson, the final commander of the space shuttle, is heard saying in the trailer in an audio clip taken from his 2011 STS-135 mission.
Ferguson, who now leads crew and mission operations for Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew program, was on hand for the filming of “Journey To Space” and will be a prominent voice in the movie.
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has been selected to host the world premiere of “Journey To Space” in February. Additional venues across the U.S. and worldwide will follow, including screenings in 2D and 3D in Huntsville, Ala., Chicago, Illinois and St. Paul, Minn. The film is set to open in New York City in the summer of 2015.
K2 Communications has previously produced these outstanding IMAX films about aviation: “Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag (2004) ” [web site] and “Legends of Flight (2010)” [web site]
