Space VR Announces ‘Overview One’ Satellite and $1.25M Seed Investment at SVVR 2016
Space VR, the San Francisco–based startup that surpassed its Kickstarter goals last year, has announced a significant shift in its mission at this year’s Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) conference in San Jose.
Originally, the company aimed to mount a 12-camera 360° rig onto the International Space Station (ISS), capturing immersive footage from orbit to be downloaded and experienced via VR headsets. Today, however, CEO and founder Ryan Holmes revealed that the team is now taking a different route — launching the world’s first virtual reality camera satellite, named Overview One.
🚀 A Shift in Orbit — and Ambition
Speaking during his keynote at SVVR 2016, Holmes announced that Space VR had closed a $1.25 million seed round, led by Chinese investment firm Shanda Group. The new funding will support the development and deployment of Overview One, a standalone VR camera satellite designed to offer a persistent, immersive view of Earth from space.
🌍 The Overview Effect
Holmes opened his talk by referencing the Overview Effect — a term used to describe the life-altering perspective astronauts experience when viewing Earth from orbit.
“As a civilisation, we are facing one primary enemy: a lack of global perspective,” he said.
“We spend trillions of dollars destroying other countries when we should be investing that in our future.”
He continued:
“The Overview Effect is when you look out into the endless stars, and for the first time, you are vividly aware of your place in an infinite universe.”
🛰️ Meet Overview One
The Overview One satellite will be equipped with dual 4K sensors and wide field-of-view lenses, enabling it to capture high-resolution spherical video from space. The footage will be controlled remotely via Space VR’s ground stations, allowing the team to “capture every interesting event there is to see in space,” according to Holmes.
Content from Overview One will be made available on all major VR platforms. However, Space VR has not yet confirmed whether the experiences will be offered as premium content or free to access.
For more updates on Space VR and the future of immersive space exploration, visit SpaceVR’s official site and stay with VR Related as the story unfolds.
