Augmented reality is headed to the stars with an announcement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Microsoft Thursday that astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) would be provided with Microsoft’s HoloLens to assist in undertaking tasks.

The goal of the new project, dubbed “Sidekick,” is to provide station crews with assistance when and where they need it. It’s believed that the new capability could reduce crew training requirements and increase the efficiency at which astronauts can work in space.

Currently with task allocation on the ISS, an astronaut takes notes on what they’ve been asked to do, then receives voice instruction from NASA while undertaking the task. With Sidekick, astronauts will now uses the HoloLens to view an augmented reality overlay of instructions of the task they are undertaking.

“HoloLens and other virtual and mixed reality devices are cutting edge technologies that could help drive future exploration and provide new capabilities to the men and women conducting critical science on the International Space Station,” Director of the ISS program at NASA Headquarters in Washington Sam Scimemi said in a post on the NASA website.

Sidekick is said to have two modes of operation: one is dubbed the “Remote Expert Mode,” and utilizes Microsoft’s chat app Skype to allow an operator on the ground to see what a crew member sees, and to provide real-time guidance, including the ability to draw annotations into the crew member’s environment via augmented reality, to guide them through the task.

The second mode is dubbed “Procedure Mode,” and utilizes the HoloLens to overlay standalone procedures with animated holographic illustrations displayed on top of the objects with which the crew is interacting, be it in an experiment, or even in the repair of the ISS.

The latter mode doesn’t require a live link, as the parameters and overlay are uploaded prior to the task being undertaken, delivering what NASA considers an “invaluable resource for missions deep into our solar system, where communication delays complicate difficult operations.”

Sidekick is said to have already been tested NASA’s Weightless Wonder C9 jet to ensure it functions as expected in a weightless environment, and will be further tested at the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations expedition in July when a group of astronauts and engineers will live in an undersea research station for two weeks, an environment said to provide a convincing analog for space exploration.

The astronauts on the ISS don’t have to wait for all the testing to be finished, however, with the first pairs of HoloLens headsets heading to the stars with SpaceX’s seventh commercial resupply mission to the station Saturday, June 28.

Image credit: nasaearthobservatory/Flickr/ CC by 2.0