Offering rare inside access to NASA and SpaceX, this is the thrilling story of the nearly 20 year journey to send American astronauts back to space aboard U.S. rockets, from filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.
For the first time, Oscar-winning directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin ("Free Solo," "The Rescue") point their lenses to the sky, covering the inspirational rise of SpaceX and Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America's space travel ambitions. Offering rare access inside the first crewed mission launched from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, this is an intimate portrait of the engineers and astronauts chosen for the historic moment. Following NASA veterans Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, and their families in the leadup to launch, RETURN TO SPACE brings viewers along for their thrilling ride to the International Space Station, and into mission control with Musk and the SpaceX team as they bring them back to Earth for a dramatic splashdown return.—Netflix
For the first time, Oscar-winning directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin ("Free Solo," "The Rescue") point their lenses to the sky, covering the inspirational rise of SpaceX and Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America's space travel ambitions. Offering rare access inside the first crewed mission launched from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, this is an intimate portrait of the engineers and astronauts chosen for the historic moment.Following NASA veterans Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, and their families in the lead-up to launch, RETURN TO SPACE brings viewers along for their thrilling ride to the International Space Station, and into mission control with Musk and the SpaceX team as they bring them back to Earth for a dramatic splashdown return.
Its 2020, and US hasn't flown its astronauts to the Space Station on US rockets for 9 yrs now. Musk believes that humans need to become an interplanetary species. Climate change, meteors or third world war could wipe off life on Earth.NASA hasn't been back to the moon since 1972, and hence Elon Musk started Space X. he is building a reusable rocket system to help humanity become a multi-planetary species. Bob and Doug are the astronauts chosen by NASA for the Dragon's capsule's first flight to the ISS. They have trained together for 20 yrs.Safety of the vehicle is top of mind for Elon. in 1986 Chellenger exploded and a similar crash now will be devastating to the US space program. Bob and Doug have been involved with Space X for 5 yrs and have been involved with the design of the spacecraft. They designed the abort system. SpaceX performs an Uncrewed demo of the abort system, where the capsule is supposed to separate from the booster and parachute down back to Earth. The test works
Doug was on the last shuttle flight in 2011, when it was retired after 30 yrs of flight. It was very expensive and dangerous. They had to rely on Russians to launch US astronauts to ISS from 2011. It cost $82 MM per person to launch from Russia. The Florida launchpads were demolished and it looked like human space flight was coming to an end.Obama announces the policy to reply on Private sector to develop technologies to launch into deep space by 2025, culminating into a landing on MArs. The congress, controlled by the republicans, resisted. Even Niel Armstrong testified against this proposal.
Elon Musk was in tears after Niel's testimony. Hans Koenigsmann is the VP of flight reliability at Space X. Hans and Elon know that failure is part of the development. He and Elon met at an amateur rocket meet in 2002. He and Elon build the Falcon rocket in an airport near LA. Elon had money for 3 flights and that's it. Falcon 1 was a 2 stage rocket. 30 secs into the flight, the engine shut down by itself. Space X had worked on it for 4 yrs. A yr later, the second attempt failed. A yr after that, the third launch also failed.Elon scrapes the money for one more launch. The 4th launch works and Space X achieves orbit, the first private company to do so. Elon wins a $1.5 BN contract from NASA.Space X takes off, with commercial launches, Satellites and so on. The launches increase every yr. Jeff Bezos gets into the field as well, with Blue Origin. Branson, Bezos and Musk are in the race for NASA contracts to supply the space station.
Elon was considered an eccentric billionaire for his antics (random tweets and smoking marijuana on camera). Elon continues working on a reusable rocket. US spent $350 BN since Apollo and send 350 people to space. Thats $ 1 Bn per person. No one has ever tried to land an orbital booster before. SpaceX blow up more rickets along the way to learn new things. SpaceX engineers developed legs, guiding fins and an advanced algorithms to control the burns during descent. They get it right after 7 yrs of testing. Falcon 9 brought the launch costs down to $4K per Kg.
2020. and 2 weeks away from the demo-2 launch to ISS. Bob and Doug's wives are both astronauts themselves. One spent 6 months at ISS and the other performed the last service mission on the Hubble. 5 days before launch a successful static fire test is conducted and the rocket passes. Bala Ramamurthy heads flight safety at Space X and the weather is acting up before the launch window. In 2016, the rocket exploded on pad, while being fueled for launch.On launch day, launch Juju is on full force with the entire Space X team. People get superstitious. Dragon socks, wear red, don't wear red, launch beard, wear green. Space X is go for launch as the weather clears. Its in the middle of Covid 19.But as the propellant starts the load, the weather moves in again. Launch is postponed. Sat May 30th, the launch is attempted again. This time the astronauts get to space. There are still risks. Docking goes off without a hitch.Bob and Doug adjust to life in zero gravity. Crew modules, toilets, foods, fluids, sense of direction. Bob turns 50. They perform EVAs. They upgrade the batteries. After 62 days, the dragon capsule Undocks and brings Doug and Bob back home.In 2003 Columbia burnt up on re-entry. Everything goes perfectly with the dragon capsule and there is splashdown.
Saturn V inspired Elon to go to Mars. Space X went into human launches after 80 flights. For Apollo, they had 2 test flights and that's it. The flight to Mars goes through a base on the moon.One yr later the same capsule takes 4 astronauts to ISS for a 6 months mission. Bob's wife Megan is the pilot on this mission.SpaceX is working on the star-ship with the goal of going to the moon.
