Imagine watching the movie Gravity at the International Space Station (ISS), when a load of debris comes your way and creates havoc. Well, that’s exactly what happened. The team currently at the ISS watched the film last night, and apparently really enjoyed it.
On the ISS movie night, the Space Premiere really was the science fiction thriller Gravity. And the humans there, who have just got a brand new HD projector, enjoyed the irony of watching it in space.
So far, no airline has dared show movies of disastrous plan crashes to their passengers, nor have cruises advertised showings of the Titanic.
The projector is meant for serious conferences and things like that. But, who is going to deny the astronauts the odd leisure treat?
Scott Kelly, who is set to spend a whole year in space, appeared relaxed about the screening of the movie ‘Gravity’ in space.
Gravity a movie to watch at ISS?
In the movie gravity, Dr. Ryan Stone, a biomedical engineer, is aboard the space shuttle Explorer. Matt Kowalski, a veteran astronaut, commands his final mission. During a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, Houston warns the team that a Russian missile has just struck a defunct satellite. The impact has triggered a chain-reaction forming a cloud of flying debris in space – and it’s coming their way.
Houston tells them to abort the mission and that the shuttle begin re-entry immediately, because the debris is making its way to the telescope. Then communications with Houston are lost, and pandemonium ensues.
The HD projector showing the movie ‘Gravity’ at the ISS. Clearly it has been put to good use. (Image: Twitter)
Commander Kelly, who is in his first month of a whole year in space, sat down and watched a movie that should have made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
How would the ISS astronauts, who have to do spacewalks, have felt when they watched Sandra Bullock look over at a load of debris coming her way?
People in risky situations watching movies that should give them the creeps is not new. According to the Harvard Gazette, scientists at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station sit down once every year and watch John Carpenter’s movie “The Thing” about a fearsome alien creature that attacks their very station.