SPACE PERSPECTIVE FLIES TWO WORLD-FIRSTS TO SPACE: AN AQUATIC “LIVING’ LIGHT“ ART INSTALLATION TOGETHER WITH A DNA ART CAPSULE - FUSING AEROSPACE, AI, AND BIOLOGY IN A VUSUALLY STUNNUNG LEAP IN THE SPACE RACE

JUNE 23, 2021 

In its pursuit of making space history, Space Perspective has collaborated with new art collective Beyond Earth to bridge the worlds of art, space, and biology in a series of firsts. The first test flight for the world's most exhilarating and comfortable space travel experience was transformed by a “Living Light” art installation by Beyond Earth, the world's largest art installation to travel to space. It was designed to spotlight the biodiversity and interdependency of all living organisms on planet Earth. The luminous, aquatic life-inspired installation on the Neptune One Test Flight was accompanied by the first DNA art capsule and took off on June 18 2021 from The Space Coast Air and Spaceport, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A world away from the rocket-fueled firsts of space endeavor, Space Perspective reimagines space exploration with a thrilling yet gentle  journey to witness the life-changing views of the curvature of the Earth at an altitude of  20 miles/30 km.

Space Perspective makes space more accessible to all, and the company is eager to inspire artists across all mediums to communicate the incredible human experience in ways that engineering and technology cannot. Beyond Earth is the inaugural guest collaborator invited to provide their expertise and pave the way for the new art and science initiatives - opening the door for the society to take part in the commercial space exploration in creative and innovative ways. Space Explorers are invited to join the ride, and reservations are now open to book a seat on Spaceship Neptune, taking flight from late 2024.

The “Living Light” art installation by Beyond Earth echoed the shape of the capsule which will eventually transport Space Explorers, and adopted the appearance of jellyfish: a giant 16ft composite AI space creature co-created with the engineers at Space Perspective and powered by the cutting-edge spaceballoon, weaving multiple narratives together.

The “Living Light” giant “jellyfish-like” organism housing the DNA capsule is named after the bioluminescence of ocean life, or the “stars in the sea,” and draws parallels between deep space and the hidden depths of the ocean. The sea creature resembles the comb jelly and is a visual summation of 1,000 images of ocean life designed through machine learning by Beyond Earth. The comb jelly is also a native species that resides in the oceans of the Space Coast in Florida, where Space Perspective resides.

During ascent, the art installation emitted different colors in response to the light, much like a squid. The installation represented a shared mission to amplify the essential biodiversity and interdependency of all living organisms — specifically hidden ocean life — rarely included in the story of life on planet Earth.

The DNA capsule was made up of three art pieces by each of the artists who make up Beyond Earth: Richelle Gribble, Elena Soterakis, and Yoko Shimizu. In a message “To Space, from Earth,” each work was converted to DNA and stored inside a metal vial containing an artistic message to space, masterminded by Twist Bioscience in San Francisco. The idea is DNA can be converted into binary code to replicate the art pieces to 99.9% accuracy one million years from now. DNA was selected because it can survive the space environment and is the timeless building block for all living organisms.

The timelessness of the DNA vial contrasts with the transitory nature of “Living Light’s journey, a metaphor for human life on Earth. When the DNA capsule returned to Earth it will have changed — reconfigured — echoing the human experience of seeing Earth from the perspective of space.

Seen through the lens of history, this is the first time three women, inspired by the pioneering Jane Poynter, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Space Perspective, have sent a message from Earth in a cocoon-like vessel into space, a traditionally male domain.

Space Perspective x Beyond Earth illuminates our rich biodiversity with a seismic exploration of space. This unique marriage of art and science viscerally communicates the enlightening and transformative effects of space flight, inspiring us all to make a more profound journey and experience our inherent interconnectedness to the Biosphere 1, our home planet, and all humankind.

Visit www.spaceperspective.com and Beyond Earth.

For more information, interviews, and visuals, please contact:

michaela.zamloot@buttoncollective.com | +44 (0)7922 184 701

sara.jensen@buttoncollective.com | +44(0)7812 339 313

Instagram @thespaceperspective

Twitter @SpacePerspectiv

Facebook @TheSpacePerspective

LinkedIn @SpacePerspective

Space Perspective

Space Perspective is the world’s first luxury spaceflight company. It invites more people than has historically been possible to experience a thrillingly new and visceral perspective that expands the human consciousness — the incredibly exhilarating panoramas and scale of Earth in space. Our atmosphere stretches for hundreds of miles into space, Spaceship Neptune flies above 99% of it.

 Setting a new bar in out-of-this-world thrilling experiences, as soon as late 2024 Space Perspective will escort Space Explorers gently to space inside Spaceship Neptune’s pressurized capsule propelled by a high-performance spaceballoon that doesn’t use rocket fuel and Explorers see the world anew through its vast windows. The ultra-comfortable, accessible, and gentle six-hour journey redefines what space and wonder travel means for the modern traveler.

Based out of Kennedy Space Center, Space Perspective is led by industry luminaries Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, with an expert crew who have been responsible for all human spaceballoon flights in the last 50 years. Poynter and MacCallum have been dubbed ‘Masters of the stratosphere’ by Bloomberg Businessweek, and MacCallum served as Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

Beyond Earth

Beyond Earth is an all-female international transdisciplinary artist collective. Our mission is to explore the frontiers of art, space, and biology through space-bound artworks. Such projects co-create with space, explore planetary themes and expand possibilities of artistic expression beyond Earth. We utilize scientific and artistic research to create and deploy artworks in space. We aim to uncover the vastness of creativity to represent a plurality of perspectives in space and envision the future of Earth. As artists, we believe that the sky is not the limit and creativity is boundless, accelerating culture and vision that transcends us.

 We believe that the future of humanity expands the boundaries of Earth and beyond. Our global initiatives allow individuals, companies, and organizations to connect and explore together — advances our notion of space and our home planet.