The world's first VR camera satellite launches next summer

SpaceVR has signed a launch agreement to send its virtual reality satellite to the International Space Station using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2017. The small startup has contracted NanoRacks — a company that runs the commercial laboratory aboard the International Space Station — to prepare Overview 1, SpaceVR’s twin-camera cube satellite, for release into low Earth orbit using NanoRacks’ CubeSat Deployer. Overview 1 will head to the ISS inside one of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsules during the CRS-12 resupply mission, which is expected to launch early next summer.

SpaceVR originally took off as a Kickstarter in 2015. Back then the plan was to send a 12-camera rig to the ISS that would be capable of shooting 3D, 360-degree footage. But...