Elon Musk can be a very divisive individual, especially when it comes to his social media posts. But his company, SpaceX, is one of NASA’s most important collaborators in the ongoing exploration of outer space. Now, the partnership between NASA and SpaceX will be explored in Return To Space, a new documentary coming to Netflix next month.
In the trailer, Musk is given a few aspirational moments that kind of gloss over his rougher edges. But he is adamant about at least one thing: Earth is humanity’s cradle, and we can’t stay here forever. We also don’t live in a sci-fi world where traveling to other planets is commonplace. And the only way we will ever reach that potential is by the hard work of the people glimpsed in the trailer.
The focus of the documentary falls upon the first American crewed space mission launched from the United States since NASA retired the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011. Since that time, NASA astronauts had been hitching rides with their Russian counterparts. Given current events in Ukraine, further collaboration between the United States and Russia in space is a very big question mark.
Return To Space also shines a spotlight on NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley as they prepare for the mission. Behnken and Hurley’s families are also examined, and they are not unaware of the risks if anything goes wrong on their trip to the International Space Station.
Not to give away too many spoilers from events that have already happened, but the trailer essentially walks us through the mission and how the team on Earth reacted as things played out.
Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) directed Return To Space. It will premiere on Netflix on April 7.
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