NASA flew this IMAX camera, the ninth built by the company, in the payload bay of the space shuttle on seven missions in the 1980s and 1990s to capture film footage for four IMAX productions. Perhaps the most notable use of the ICBC (IMAX Cargo Bay Camera) was to film the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope during STS-31 in 1990, footage also used in the IMAX films Destiny in Space (1994) and Hubble 3D (2010).
Once mounted inside a fixed, insulated pressurized container in the payload bay, film and lenses could not be changed. To pan or tilt for filming, the shuttle itself needed to move as the camera was on a fixed base. The camera unit had enough film loaded for six minutes of filming through a 30mm wide-angle lens. Activation and operation of the camera were controlled via a get away special (GAS) controller on the aft space shuttle flight deck.
Gift of the IMAX Corporation in 2011.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.