Get ready to see movie studios in space
Today, the UK-based Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) announced plans to put a movie studio in space. This studio, called the SEE-1, will be a module attached to Axiom's planned commercial space station, but the studio itself will be ready to go long before construction on Axiom Station is complete. In fact, Space Entertainment Enterprise intends to launch this studio is late 2024, so just under three years from now.
It's an ambitious plan, no doubt, and to call SEE-1 simply a "movie studio in space" is perhaps underselling it a bit. Space Entertainment Enterprise is planning SEE-1 as a multimedia studio, suitable for shooting movies or television shows, recording music, or even hosting sporting events in the microgravity of low-Earth orbit.
As outlined in a press release on Space Entertainment Enterprise's website, the current plan seems to be to assemble the SEE-1 here on Earth (with Axiom in charge of construction) and then launch it into space in late 2024. From there, the SEE-1 will dock with Axiom Station as it's attached to the International Space Station for assembly. Axiom Station won't be fully assembled until 2028, but SEE-1 will be operational from the time it docks with the under-construction space station in late 2024.
Once Axiom Station launches in 2028, Space Entertainment Enterprise says SEE-1 will "comprise one-fifth of its volume." SEE-1 may already have its first client lined up, too, as Variety today confirmed that Space Entertainment Enterprise is one of the companies co-producing Tom Cruise's upcoming space movie, which we first heard about back in 2020.
However, SEE-1 won't only play host to third-party projects, as Space Entertainment Enterprise also plans to produce its own content there. At the moment, these plans are being painted in rather broad strokes, but we imagine we'll hear more about specific upcoming projects and content plans as we get closer to SEE-1's launch date in late 2024.
"SEE-1 is an incredible opportunity for humanity to move into a different realm and start an exciting new chapter in space," said SEE co-founders Dmitry and Elena Lesnevsky in today's announcement. "With worldwide leader Axiom Space building this cutting-edge, revolutionary facility, SEE-1 will provide not only the first, but also the supreme quality space structure enabling the expansion of the two trillion-dollar global entertainment industry into low-Earth orbit."
For now, we don't have many official images of SEE-1, but the few artist renders released by SEE depict it as a big, white spherical object attached to Axiom Station. Those renders show the SEE-1 attached to both a completed Axiom Station and one that's still in progress and itself attached to the ISS. We'll let you know when SEE shares more details about this so-called movie studio in space, but it may not be long before we hear of movies and TV shows shooting in microgravity.