62nd International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright ©2011 by Dr C Riley, Dr C Welch, Dr E Detsis and A Ebrahimi. Published by the IAF, with permission and released to the IAF to publish in all forms. IAC‐11.E1.4.2 First Orbit A new film of Yuri Gagarin’s flight, created to celebrate the first 50 years of human spaceflight. Dr C Riley: chris@chris‐riley.com University of Lincoln, UK Dr C Welch: [email protected], Dr E Detsis: [email protected] A Ebrahimi: [email protected] International Space University, Strasbourg, France To mark the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight on the 12th April 2011 a feature‐length film, First Orbit, was produced to bring the story of Yuri Gagarin to a new generation. In collaboration with the European Space Agency, NASA, Roscosmos and the Expedition 25 through 27 crews on board the International Space Station (ISS), a new view of Earth was recorded from the station. It was filmed over several weeks as the ISS passed over the same ground track at the same time of day as Vostok‐1 had done on its flight. The resulting footage was edited together with the original voice recordings from Gagarin’s mission and a new musical score from composer Philip Sheppard. On the 12th April 2011 the film was premiered on YouTube, generating the largest audience for a long‐form film release in the web site’s history. During the same month the film was screened at over 1600 venues in more than 130 countries around the world; making it one of the most widely released independent films of all time. This paper presents a description of the whole project; from the conception and production of the film, to a comprehensive analysis of how this experimental documentary and its associated media were received around the world, while outlining plans for its future development. I. ORIGINAL CONCEPT & CONCEPTION transmission signal was lost and no attempt was made to continue recording pictures on board the spacecraft. In late 2009, following the success of his previous documentary film projects In the Shadow of the Moon Audio recordings of the flight loop between Vostok‐1 (2007)1, Moonwalk One – The Director’s Cut (2009)2, and mission control were recorded throughout the and the video installation Apollo Raw and Uncut flight; both on board the spacecraft and back on the (2009)3 – which projected the entire Apollo flight film ground when communications allowed. Translated archive into public gallery spaces in London and transcripts have been widely circulated since then, but Montreal, Christopher Riley began looking for another to Riley’s knowledge the complete audio recordings archive based film project to celebrate the 50th were never released outside of Russia. anniversary of human spaceflight. Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok‐1 flight of the 12th April 1961 was not captured in any significant way on film or video and documentaries made about his mission since then have always used rather poor quality black and white views of the Earth from later Vostok missions to illustrate Gagarin’s new perspective on his home planet. A single TV camera on board Vostok‐1 was used briefly to transmit an image of the cosmonaut inside his 4 capsule during his flight over Soviet territory . But, as Gagarin headed East over the Pacific Ocean, the Figure 1: The ground track of Vostok‐1 (Courtesy of Sven Grahn5). IAC‐11‐E1.4.2 Page 1 of 14 62nd International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright ©2011 by Dr C Riley, Dr C Welch, Dr E Detsis and A Ebrahimi. Published by the IAF, with permission and released to the IAF to publish in all forms. The creation of a new Vostok‐1 film was considered; ground track at the same time of day that Vostok‐1 had constructing a view of the Earth which Gagarin could flown almost fifty years before. The resulting footage have seen by piecing together existing archive footage could then be edited together into a 108 minute film shot in Earth orbit over the same ground track and at and combined with the original voice recordings, if the same time of day as he flew. Maps of the Vostok‐1 they could be found, to create a new video installation trajectory were taken from sources on the internet5 to for gallery spaces around the world. guide the archive research needed for such an approach (see Figure 1, previous page). To match the season, as well as the time of day and the ground path of Vostok‐1’s flight, it was hoped that Gagarin lifted off from the launch site, near Baikonur, some filming might be possible around April 2010, and not far from the Aral Sea, at 06:07 UTC on the 12th an approach was made to the European Space Agency April 1961. He flew northeast across the eastern part (ESA) to see if the time on board the ISS to undertake of the Soviet Union and Siberia, and on across the the project could be sponsored and coordinated by terminator and into night over the Pacific Ocean. At them. The film production would be funded and 07:10 UTC he emerged into sunlight again over the produced by Riley’s production company The Attic Southern Atlantic and passed over Africa, the Room. Mediterranean Sea, Turkey and the Black Sea before landing just north of the Caspian Sea, 108 minutes II. PRODUCING THE FILM after launch. Pre‐Production Following a brief review of the range of Earth view footage in the NASA archive, shot over the past fifty With the support of Bob Chesson, Head of the Human years, it was concluded that it would be too difficult to Spaceflight and Exploration Operations Department at source existing media of consistently good‐enough ESA, an initial feasibility study was undertaken. quality to make the film in this way and the idea was shelved. Vostok‐1 ISS Orbit 302 x 170 km 350 x 350 km Inclination 65.04o 51.6o Table 1: Comparison of Vostok‐1 and ISS Orbits Full orbital elements for Vostok‐1 proved impossible to track down. Even for those parameters that were identified, there were small discrepancies in their values between different sources. The figures adopted for First Orbit were eventually taken from ‘Man’s First Space Flight – a TASS Report’.6 Using these values, and the map of Vostok‐1’s orbital ground path (see Fig. 1, page 1 ), ESA’s Gerald Ziegler performed the initial calculations to see if the Space Station’s ground track ever matched that of Vostok‐1. Figure 2: NASA astronaut Tracey Caldwell‐Dyson in the ISS Cupola, during Expedition‐24. Ziegler concluded that a similar ground track would be made by the ISS every 48 hours or so. However, when However, in early 2010 when the Italian Space the extra constraint of this taking place at the same Agency’s cupola was installed on the International time of day as Vostok‐1 was applied, the frequency of Space Station (ISS), much was made in the media about such occurrences dropped to around every six weeks. the unparalleled views of the Earth which it gave (see Figure 2), and the idea to film Vostok‐1’s orbit from Due to the different orbits of Vostok‐1 and the ISS, an scratch was born. ISS ground track which started above Baikonur could not follow that of Vostok‐1 for an entire orbit. As a Such a project could potentially capture new high‐ result, there was no chance of capturing a complete definition digital video views of almost the same ‘Gagarin view’ during a single pass around the Earth. IAC‐11‐E1.4.2 Page 2 of 14 62nd International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright ©2011 by Dr C Riley, Dr C Welch, Dr E Detsis and A Ebrahimi. Published by the IAF, with permission and released to the IAF to publish in all forms. Instead, Ziegler recommended breaking up Vostok‐1’s every 5‐10 minutes during each orbital segment, to ground track into a series of five separate segments, give plenty of different Earth views to cut between. which would then be matched to future ISS ground Following a review of this rather labour‐intensive tracks (see Figure 3, below). The filming opportunities approach, a decision was made to restrict the filming for each segment could then be identified and the of each orbital segment to a single camera position, so footage captured on different days and then edited reducing the total amount of crew time needed for the together to give the illusion of the single 108‐minute project substantially. Given that there would be flight around the Earth that Gagarin originally took. multiple opportunities to film each segment of the orbit during the time Nespoli was on board the ISS, this The five segments – labelled A‐E – were: would still provide a wide‐enough variety of shots from which to construct the film. A. Launch site near Baikonur to Eastern Russia B. Eastern Russia into the Pacific The revised shot list allowed the camera to be set up in C. Pacific night pass to Southern tip of Americas one fixed position, the recording started and the D. Sunrise over the South Atlantic to Africa camera left to run for the duration of the ground track (crossing Angolan coast) segment without needing further crew time until the E. Central Africa to Mediterranean and on across end of the segment. At this point, the camera would be Black Sea and home.