Tom Cruise wants to fly into space on behalf of the cinema, and NASA says it is happening.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed that Top Gun star jumping on the couch, Tom Cruise, is working with the agency on a film aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Rotating crews of astronauts have lived permanently on the ISS since 2000, and a few well-paid tourists have stopped at the station over the years. At one point, pop star Lance Bass, of the “NSYNC boyband” fame, planned a visit in the early 2000s, although the trip was not a success.
A few films have been filmed aboard the space station, including a 2002 IMAX documentary that Cruise recounted. “Apogee of Fear”, a 2012 sci-fi film, was also shot in space by space entrepreneur and tourist Richard Garriott, the son of an astronaut.
But Cruise may be the first player to support extraterrestrial travel
Cruise was formed from the ISS, having narrated the fairly good 2002 IMAX 3D movie, Space Station 3D, which was commissioned to build the lab in orbit. Although for our money, The Dream Is Alive’s 1985 IMAX broadcast benefits from being in a more ambitious era of Shuttle operations, with a commentary by Walter Cronkite and no 3D.
As for Cruise, it appears that his team will be working with Elon Musk’s rockets on the project, the details of which are still unclear at present. It’s also not the first chance for the Vanilla Sky star to try to do something in the sky. In an interview with Empire magazine, 3D Smurf fanatic James Cameron said he and Cruise were arguing about making a movie aboard the ISS in 2000.
Should the project come off (and for our little vulture brains, NASA will probably not be able to wear American boots on the surface of the Moon by 2024), it would be very unlikely that Cruise would slip. “One of the crew’s dragons. Musk will be here soon. Cruise himself is filming Mission: Impossible 7 and Musk hasn’t launched humans into space yet. Then there’s the total expenses involved.
Cruise would also be wise to remember that if he hopes such a mission can add a few inches to his Scottish stature, the extra height will unfortunately not last long.
The tech world has had its share of space tourists over the years. Cannon chief Mark Shuttleworth visited the ISS in 2002, while video game developer Richard Garriott and shuttle son and astronaut Skylab Owen Garriott increased in 2008.
We are sure there are other tech moguls and billionaires who could be sent back into space. We could even let some people have a spaceship.
