Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), founded by billionaire Elon Musk in the late 2021, accomplished its first ever all-civilian spaceflight. The flight was paid for by four people who could afford to go to space and it did not come cheap. According to estimates, individuals are paying as much as $500,000 for a round trip into space – that is one way if we were lucky – while NASA would spend up to $58 million just getting into orbit. Other notable billionaires looking to tap into the business include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also recently went into space as a civilian. However, movies such as Moonshot may well be hitting the nail on the head when they depict space travel as an elite preserve of the rich since technology giants have only just embarked on their journey to space.
Return to Space is a Netflix documentary that looks at the collaboration between NASA and SpaceX; two award-winning filmmakers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin directed it. These are husband and wife filmmakers that have been involved in other documentaries such as Meru or Free Solo which also deal with topics of rock climbing. In another film called The Rescue there was an account of cave divers rescuing Thai teenagers trapped in the cave. As far as awards go, Free Solo had some breakthrough moments considering it won Best Documentary Feature at Academy Awards in 2019. And so they took their cameras back but this time pointed them towards something higher and more distant in universe: surely Musk’s ultimate purpose echoed through it all.
It became possible for this documentary to begin shooting in November 2019 following three years during which SpaceX made strides forward. It was within these same three years that COVID-19 broke out across our planet Earth. This posed not only a possible threat to us filming, but also affected how much further we could have advanced our work or research otherwise sickened by COVID-19 infections like the one that kept Musk away from the lift-off. Before this, however, SpaceX had a longer trajectory: he created it in 2002 after spending a year pondering about whether or not plants could be grown on Mars. A few years ago, hardly anyone knew much about it as a company even though recently it has become the talk of mainstream media due to its prospects for growth within commercial space travel. This year will mark twenty years since SpaceX was officially established but also the survival of Boeing’s competition among aviation and boat-building giants.
SpaceX and NASA’s partnership is considered by the documentary as an epoch where American astronauts return back to space after years’ break-in activity. But what is now being promoted as NASA’s savior is still a business organization rather than a public one. However, some parts may seem like advertising for both the firm and Musk’s undertakings although there is one thing that cannot be denied about it; Return to Space glosses over SpaceX’s failures in history. In other words, Return to Space focuses on future SpaceX – an era of its greatness but doesn’t have any word about how we got here. Besides that, instead of highlighting on their government deal they disregard all commercial side of this organization.
The voiceovers with Musk in his own words give a clear understanding of his vision and dream, unlike the outlandish viral posts. It is impossible to separate the story of SpaceX from that of Musk, especially as the film seeks to humanize him. Regardless of one’s opinion about Musk, SpaceX was an enterprise he built from scratch in early 2000s. “I’m not good at dancing,” he says jokingly and moves away from reporters. Such snippets reveal the man behind the billionaire façade; who is just like any other person having too many followers on Instagram or Twitter. However, there aren’t enough of these moments in the documentary for someone to feel they know Musk well enough. This adds up to the collective mythology Musk has created and seems almost staged.
Some other elements operating inside this movie are family footage taken by NASA employees, camera footage, interviewing NASA and SpaceX officials as well as engineers directly. Another significant interview added into this mix is with YouTuber Everyday Astronaut, a familiar face for anybody interested in the casual side of this industry. This includes footages provided by NASA which pieces together America’s recent history regarding space flights ranging from it’s gradual demise till now. The author also highlights connection with Russia through sociopolitical events currently happening around Russia. There have been rumors that Russia may even leave International Space Station thus creating urgency to American government attempts at beefing up its space program.
However, Return to Space faced complications when being made but it went ahead anyway not minding all this obstacles that were posed by governmental premises where cast had to shoot some scenes in order meet their demands fully considering what they would have done or not done while on them limits strictly attached on them as stated through interviews with Vanity Fair filmmakers; no tech used by USA should be captured in any shot whatsoever, and “a ruling” came down during production.” Consequently, besides federal property two individuals could never be in the same room at any given time – this makes it extremely hard to create a great piece of documentary as far as substance is concerned. That’s why there are so many archive footage used as transitioning scenes between explaining the gaps left by the overreaching narrative.
The stakes are also quite low during this process. There are no issues throughout the film other than bad weather and therefore, when the actual launch occurs, there is no build up or tension in the distilled nature. Press release interviews tend not to be the most exciting content in documentaries, so if someone is looking for historical preservation of this event, this might be the documentary for them. It goes towards documenting history because that was the first commercial class flight ever but it’s not everyone’s style. It does not include science fiction on Mars or any of those legal or business drama movies. This instead takes us inside what happens behind closed doors even though it may not be mass market appeal stuff.
Nonetheless, there is no real desire to do this in Return to Space. Eventually, it becomes an occurrence that would be expected from works like these: a case where the government teams up with rich private individuals so as to have a scenario which will probably exclude ordinary people. At times, bringing in the astronauts’ stories endears us to it but they don’t go beyond why this is necessary for governmental purposes. This is not a tale that goes above and beyond in a universal tone; it’s Musk’s universe and story coming together.
Roots of capitalism and the American Dream could be amongst the major lessons learnt from Return to Space. There exists this need to try something great nobody else has ever done before, make a statement or accomplish an old long-forgotten dream buried deep down oneself. However, there is some fundamental point that should be understood here: Musk can only do what he does because he has enough money and resources. This might inspire other documentaries discussing if one billionaire could represent the future of space travel soon. If these are anything to go by, then maybe Traveling to Mars isn’t that far-fetched either.
And perhaps Musk is the actual future of space travel, but by a single shot where Neil Armstrong is seen, it can be deduced that the documentary has lost its footing of where all of this came from. It only looks back on moments of tragedy such as Challenger explosion or end of American space program without questioning reasons behind them at all. They might briefly mention these historical incidents through which lives were lost but as far as what happens next with Musk’s technology after the film ends nothing gets touched upon. Or let us say if Musk just fulfills his personal dreams instead of making a giant leap forward for mankind?
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