[imagesource: Netflix]

There’s a lot that has been conveniently left out of Netflix’s new documentary, Return to Space, which does its best to put SpaceX at the centre of the world’s space exploration future.

As former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver makes explicitly clear in the doccie, “Elon [Musk] and SpaceX changed our industry completely because everything’s reusable”, which has helped the space industry “launch for a tenth of the cost” than was previously possible.

True, but at the end of the day, NASA is actually the one paying for all this to be possible.

Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin go to great lengths to show how SpaceX is essentially one of the only companies necessary for the future of space exploration.

But a review from WIRED points out how that’s not completely on track:

Musk’s rhetoric might make it seem like SpaceX will usher in a new era of spaceflight and save humanity by building colonies on Mars and other inhospitable worlds, but his company, and others like it, wouldn’t exist without NASA and NASA contracts.

When it became evident the space agency couldn’t achieve its vast ambitions without delegating some tasks to others, NASA played a fundamental role in propping up the fledgling industry, one it still plays today.

Sure, SpaceX brought crewed launches back to the US nearly a decade after the last government shuttle flight in 2011.

And yes, SpaceX does play a critical role in providing key services, shuttling astronauts into orbit and completing supply runs.

It is also true that SpaceX’s efforts have been game-changing, especially the ones that lower the costs of getting equipment and crews into space.

But, the review goes on to say, despite these successes, NASA is still the ultimate leader in space exploration:

NASA and other space agencies are the ones supporting the ISS, developing important research on the health impacts of space radiation and life in microgravity, and maintaining critical infrastructure on the ground.

During the post-shuttle and pre-Dragon years, NASA developed a new crew capsule and dozens of groundbreaking uncrewed spacecraft, including ones sallying forth into deep space, toward the sun, Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, and Pluto, to name a few.

Right, the trailer:

The documentary also ignores other SpaceX pitfalls, like environmental concerns regarding the company’s launch sites and Starlink satellites possibly littering the Milky Way.

Return To Space is also very forgiving in how it portrays Musk, the central figure behind SpaceX.

IndieWire called the doccie “dull and airless” and reduced it to “a two-hour infomercial for SpaceX” (and Musk) that “pungently reeks of sponsored content”.

All that aside, Return to Space is currently streaming on Netflix if you want to see what all the fuss is about yourself.

[sources:wired&indiewire]