Have fish ever been taken up into outer space on the space shuttle?

For the first time, astronauts will photograph and film their work and everyday life in space specifically for planetarium audiences. The Burke Baker Planetarium production team at the Houston Museum of Natural Science has trained the STS-120 Space Shuttle Mission crew to document their experiences using the fish-eye photography necessary for a projection on a full-dome screen. Lift-off is scheduled for Tuesday, October 23 at 11:38 AM EDT.

"IMAX cameras have flown in space for many years," said Dr. Carolyn Sumners, the Museum's Vice President for Astronomy, and leader of the astronauts' training efforts. "This is the first flight for a camera capable of capturing a hemispheric view, which is required for planetarium projection. The Museum has previously trained scientists to take a large-format fish-eye camera to the North Pole and Ethiopia, but STS-120 is the Museum's first expedition into outer space."

With a Nikon F5 camera and a NIKKOR 8 mm lens, astronauts can capture an entire hemisphere of view in one shot. Images will be processed to produce a circular fish-eye image that is 4000 pixels across. Through a series of such images, astronauts will be able to take planetarium audiences down the corridor of the International Space Station or up to a window for a view from the flight deck.

Astronaut training has included extensive testing with the camera by the Photography and Television Training Team at the Johnson Space Center. "This has been a very exciting opportunity to capture the entire spaceflight experience," said Gary Kilgo, STS-120 Photo/TV training lead. "We have had to develop new lighting and exposure techniques to illuminate an entire hemisphere.

In these fish-eye images, planetarium audiences will see all aspects of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station." Six crew members have been trained to use the camera individually and in teams: Commander Pamela Melroy; Pilot George Zamka; and Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski, Douglas Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson and Paolo Nespoli. Dr. Parazynski serves on the Board of Directors for the Houston Museum of Natural Science and has led this effort.

The training program included pre-training with the Johnson Space Center photography team and a day of training in the International Space Station and Space Shuttle training simulators with the STS-120 crew. The crew previewed their test shots in the Burke Baker Planetarium. Dr. Parazynski has also practiced shooting at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the mission.

NASA's STS-120 mission will transport a connecting module called the Harmony Node to the International Space Station. This Node will increase the orbiting laboratory's interior space and connect the U.S. segment of the station to the European and Japanese modules. Astronauts will use the hemispherical fish-eye camera on board to document these events, as well as everyday life in space.

The still photographs and time-lapse movies they produce will immerse planetarium audiences in the experience of living and working in space. Photographs taken by astronauts on the upcoming STS-120 mission will be displayed in planetarium shows as soon as the film returns from space and is processed. The full-dome fish-eye images will also be made available to planetariums around the world.

Following the mission, the fish-eye images taken by the STS-120 crew will be available upon request from NASA Johnson Space Center's Media Resource Center.