“To be out there among the stars, I find that incredibly exciting,” Elon Musk says in a new Netflix documentary celebrating the first 20 years of his spaceflight company, SpaceX.
While Musk detractors would no doubt like nothing better than to see Musk heading toward some far-off galaxy rather than remaining here on Earth, there’s no question that the billionaire entrepreneur has achieved remarkable things with SpaceX.
Made by Oscar-winning directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (The Rescue, Free Solo), Return to Space, which premieres on Netflix on Thursday, April 7, touches on many of the breakthroughs achieved by SpaceX, though it focuses mainly on how Musk and his team of crack engineers helped to bring crewed launches back to U.S. soil in 2020 after a nine-year break following the end of the Space Shuttle program.
The historic mission, which saw a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station, also marked the start of a new era of commercialized space travel in which private spaceflight companies offer their services to NASA.
“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,” Netflix said of Return to Space.
“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.”
Check out the trailer for Return to Space below:
SpaceX is now looking to make history by landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface using its next-generation Starship spacecraft as part of NASA’s Artemis III mission, and crewed missions to Mars are also in the cards. With all that in mind, the next SpaceX documentary should also be something to savor.
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