This week marks 40 years since an IMAX camera was first used in space, capturing footage from a historic NASA mission.
Four decades ago, on 18 June 1983, Space Shuttle Challenger embarked on its second of ten voyages into space (its tenth being the unsuccessful 1986 mission that saw the vessel explode during launch). The 70mm IMAX camera was operated by astronaut Sally Ride – the first American woman in space.
• Want to shoot the stars? Check out the best cameras for astrophotography
Indeed, Challenger is perhaps the most legendary Space Shuttle in history thanks to its numerous firsts. Its maiden voyage in April 1983 saw the first ever spacewalk during a Space Shuttle mission, with its fourth mission in February 1984 seeing the first untethered spacewalk.
It was also the craft that carried the first African-American, Canadian and Dutchman in space – along with the first ever private citizen, teacher Christa McAuliffe, who tragically perished with the other six crew members on its ill-fated final mission.
For the June 1983 mission, though, Challenger was outfitted with an IMAX camera for the first of what would be many times. IMAX cameras became a common fixture on NASA craft until around 2015, when digital cameras and 4K started taking over from analog and 70mm film.
With Ride behind the lens, the 70mm footage captured by the camera was featured in the legendary 1985 IMAX documentary film, The Dream Is Alive (which I vividly remember watching during my first visit to the Kennedy Space Center in 1989!).
You can see the astronaut training with the camera, along with a video of a replica and a still of the original (which has been donated to the Smithsonian) in the slides of the Instagram link below.
If you love stargazing, take a look at the best lenses for astrophotography, the best astrophotography software, along with the best star trackers and the best telescopes for astrophotography.
