Object Details
Manufacturer
IMAX Corporation
Summary
NASA flew this IMAX camera, the ninth built by the company, in the payload bay of the space shuttle on seven missions in the 1980s and 1990s to capture film footage for four IMAX productions. Perhaps the most notable use of the ICBC (IMAX Cargo Bay Camera) was to film the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope during STS-31 in 1990, footage also used in the IMAX films Destiny in Space (1994) and Hubble 3D (2010).
Once mounted inside a fixed, insulated pressurized container in the payload bay, film and lenses could not be changed. To pan or tilt for filming, the shuttle itself needed to move as the camera was on a fixed base. The camera unit had enough film loaded for six minutes of filming through a 30mm wide-angle lens. Activation and operation of the camera were controlled via a get away special (GAS) controller on the aft space shuttle flight deck.
Gift of the IMAX Corporation in 2011.
Credit Line
Gift of the IMAX Corporation
Inventory Number
A20120259000
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
EQUIPMENT-Photographic
Materials
Aluminum Alloy
Ferrous Alloy
Plastics
Adhesive Tape
Adhesive Sticker
Ink
Rubber
Glass
Dimensions
3-D (Overalll): 43.2 × 27.9 × 26.7cm, 24.9kg (1 ft. 5 in. × 11 in. × 10 1/2 in., 54.8lb.)
Country of Origin
Canada
See more items in
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Data Source
National Air and Space Museum
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nasm_A20120259000