Return to Space (2022)

Return to Space

from Decider: https://decider.com/2022/04/07/return-to-space-netflix-review/

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Return to Space’ On Netflix, An Inside Look At Elon Musk’s Efforts to Get Astronauts Back Into Space

By Jade Budowski @jadebudowski Apr 7, 2022 at 4:45pm

Elon Musk has made headlines for just about everything under the sun; from turning out Teslas and hosting Saturday Night Live to giving his babies very unconventional names to endorsing Kanye West for President. Let’s face it: the man has never shied away from the spotlight. His efforts to get astronauts into space with his company SpaceX are chronicled in Return to Space, now streaming on Netflix.

 
RETURN TO SPACE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Astronauts have not returned to the International Space Station from American soil in almost 9 years. After the dismantling of the Space Shuttle program (it’s expensive, y’all!), American astronauts have traveled to space alongside the Russians. But that’s all about to change. With the help of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, NASA is preparing to send astronauts back to the ISS from American soil. We begin with the final test for NASA to certify SpaceX for regular crew flights to the ISS, and meet astronauts like Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken and various engineers and NASA officials. Before we get to the good stuff, we take a trip back to how we got here to begin with, back in 2002 when Musk started SpaceX with dreams of creating a reusable rocket.

Over the course of Return to Space‘s two-plus hour runtime, we get a glimpse of the history of space travel, the current state of it all, and begin to understand how NASA became involved with the commercial sector (and why Musk is the one who won the $1.5 billion contract). We see him try and try again to get a rocket into orbit, getting emotional when he learns that his heroes – including Neil Armstrong – are against NASA getting into bed with the private sector. SpaceX and NASA press on, however, running tests working hard to make this dream happen. While they face more than a few obstacles – including thunderstorms (“I, too, am bummed”, Musk says, when they are unable to launch due to the weather) – this relentless group of people will stop at nothing until they make it back beyond the stratosphere.Photo: Netflix

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Some other documentaries about space and astronauts include Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo, The Mars Generation, and The Wonderful: Stories From The Space Station.

Performance Worth Watching: Astronaut duo Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are big part of the heart of Return to Space; not only do they have immense respect for one another, but there’s a deep admiration between the two of them, and it’s their connection that makes a lot of the documentary so compelling. Seeing them with their families and learning both their spouses are astronauts as well only raises the stakes. Hurley and Behnken’s deep love and passion for what they do makes watching them embark on this journey all the more powerful. They’re the stuff great doc subjects are made of.

Memorable Dialogue: “I embrace the dawn of commercialization of space,” Hurley says, which sounds like a ringing endorsement for the SpaceX/NASA partnership, but also might not bode so well when Amazon and Richard Branson start sending folks to the moon.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: From Free Solo directing couple Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin comes Return to Space, part moving documentary, part Elon Musk/SpaceX promotional video. If you can put the way the film makes a big effort to humanize Musk and his controversial persona aside (though I’ll admit I was a tad moved by his apparent dedication to these endeavors), it’s a remarkable feat, and the emotional journey at the heart of the film is deeply compelling. Even with its overlong run time (2+ hours is quite a commitment these days), Return to Space still delivers something equal parts moving and fascinating. It’s the kind of film likely to please lovers of space exploration and determined entrepreneurs alike, and an interesting examination of what it means for NASA to have moved into the commercial realm.

By combining archival footage and interviews with its own documenting of the mission and the people involved, Return to Space paints a mesmerizing picture, rich in depth both emotional and historical. Return to Space will certainly rub some the wrong way with its apparent hero worship and lack of exploring what it really means for these tech companies to be fighting to get into space. The significance of NASA making it back into space, however, overshadows this, allowing us to see firsthand how private sector innovation has allowed us to send astronauts back to the stars again.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While a large part of Return to Space plays like a SpaceX promotional video, the meaningful way the film tells the story of a group of hopeful dreamers makes it more than worth your while.