A far-out virtual reality show led by a University of Colorado grad and top Smithsonian astronomers will transport viewers into exploding stars and black holes, all while standing on the James Webb Space Telescope and other space observatories.
“Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience” is a 1-hour show with 40 minutes of “free roam” virtual reality that opens in Denver and four other cities this summer. It depicts cosmic wonders using real astronomical data from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, NASA and the European Space Agency, said Denise Elliott, acting president of Smithsonian Enterprises.
Producers picked Denver as one of the first five cities due to Colorado’s strong ties to aerospace and astronomy, such as the fact that the Webb telescope’s 21-foot mirror was made by Ball Aerospace. Lockheed Martin also built Webb’s Near Infrared Camera, which is the telescope’s primary instrument to capture images.
“Starstruck” opened in Washington, D.C., on June 12, and has so far been enjoyed by diverse crowds — including NASA officials, Elliott said. The plan is to eventually open in 30 cities total.
“I was a bit of a nervous wreck,” Elliott said with a laugh, remembering when the NASA experts first donned the VR headsets. “But they were like, ‘This is great!’ ”
“Starstruck” opens in Denver on Thursday, Aug. 13, with tickets on sale Thursday, June 18. They cost $21.75-$24.75 at . The experience is designed for ages 10 and up. Groups of six people are launched into the immersive exhibition every 3 minutes or so, with a capacity of about 100 per hour, Elliott said.
The program was developed with global events-producer Fever, which designs and stages “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” and other shows. It was directed in virtual reality by , a University of Colorado Leeds School of Business grad who also happened to visit Fiske Planetarium quite a bit while living in Boulder.
He minored in graphic design and computer graphics, and has been working heavily with virtual reality and experimental technology for 15 years. That makes the free-roam, interactive, 3D narrative of “Starstruck” both a passion and a deeply scientific venture for Mizroch.
“It’s really approachable, but there’s a lot of hard science in there that’s millimeter-accurate,” he said from Madrid, where he has lived and worked for Fever since 2024. “The movie is really about the birth, life and death of stars, and transporting you into these amazing 2D images, transformed into immersive spaces, based on real data.”
The show was created with top astrophysicists and of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who have a knack for turning dense scientific information into fun facts, Mizroch added.
“Randall told me that whether growing up watching ‘Cosmos’ or hanging out at Fiske, when you look up at space at night, it’s this ethereal, heavenly place, and you might think there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know,” Mizroch said. “But he said, ‘No, we know a lot of real places with real addresses and real functions in the macro universe. All this stuff happening out in space has its purpose and we can explain to you exactly what that is.’ ”
“Starstruck” is opening in other cities with strong ties to aerospace and astronomy, Fever said, including Denver, San Antonio and Orlando, but also London and Manchester, England. (Fever also maintains its own venue here for immersive experiences.) Elliott declined to share the project’s budget but said it was a significant investment for Smithsonian Enterprises and the first VR exhibition of its kind for the organization.
“Starstruck” begins its run Thursday, Aug. 13, at Fever Hub at York Street Yards, 3863 N. Steele St., Suite 1168. The renovated brick complex formerly hosted experiences such as David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar’s “Theater of the Mind,” a 2022 world-premiere immersive show that included virtual reality elements. The show is fully accessible for people with disabilities, including low vision and hearing impairment.
It’s not the first space-VR show to tour Denver: the International Space Station-themed “Space Explorers: The Infinite” also played at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace in 2024.
