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Sports and entertainment set for final frontier with SEE-1 arena project

Plans have been revealed for the first multi-purpose arena in space, through a project involving the backers of Tom Cruise’s efforts to shoot a movie beyond Earth’s limits.

Space Entertainment Enterprise (S.E.E.), the UK-based media company developing multi-platform, space-based entertainment has unveiled SEE-1, which will include content and entertainment studios. The space station module will be built by human spaceflight services and human-rated space infrastructure, Axiom Space.

SEE-1 is planned to launch in late 2024 and dock with Axiom’s world’s-first commercial space station, Axiom Station, while it is connected to the International Space Station (ISS). The project’s backers claim the module will allow artists, producers, and creatives to develop, produce, record, and live stream content which maximises the Space Station’s low-orbit micro-gravity environment, including films, television, music and sports events.

S.E.E was co-founded by Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky, media entrepreneurs and film producers, who are producing the first ever Hollywood motion picture filmed in outer space. Axiom intends to send Cruise, and director Doug Liman, to the ISS for what will now be the second film to be shot in space.

The Cruise-led project was set to go ahead in October, only to be postponed. In the meantime, a Russian film crew has since successfully filmed ‘The Challenge’ – a movie whose premise revolves around a surgeon having to operate on a sick cosmonaut in space. This film is scheduled for release later this year.

S.E.E said its partners, consultants and advisors include senior media industry figures from the likes of HBO, Endemol Shine UK and Viacom, alongside US investment bank GH Partners. The company is currently in discussions with investors and commercial partners on the project with a further fundraising round planned shortly.

“SEE-1 is an incredible opportunity for humanity to move into a different realm and start an exciting new chapter in space,” said Dmitry and Elena Lesnevsky. “It will provide a unique, and accessible home for boundless entertainment possibilities in a venue packed with innovative infrastructure which will unleash a new world of creativity.

“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.”

In addition to S.E.E.-produced events, the space arena intends to provide the venue and production infrastructure for hosting and filming third-party content and events.

SEE-1 is planned to become operational starting in December 2024, early in Axiom Station’s on-orbit assembly. When the station’s initial configuration is completed and it is ready to separate from the ISS in 2028, the content creation venue will comprise one-fifth of its volume.

Axiom Space is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the SEE-1 project. “SEE-1 will showcase and leverage the space environment in an unprecedented way,” said Axiom chief engineer Dr. Michael Baine.

“The inflatable module design provides for around six metres diameter of unobstructed pressurised volume, which can be adapted to a range of activities – including an onboard state-of-the-art media production capability that will capture and convey the experience of weightlessness with breathtaking impact.”

Images: S.E.E.