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Television

Netflix Announces SpaceX Documentary On Civilian Mission Into Orbit (sky.com) 42

Posted by BeauHD from the behind-the-scenes dept.
Netflix will stream a documentary next month which will follow the story of the world's first private all-civilian space orbit. Sky News reports: The group will board a SpaceX capsule next month and spend three days orbiting the Earth, becoming Netflix's first documentary "to cover an event in near real-time." The privately chartered flight will be commanded, funded and led by 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, and aim to support St Jude Children's Research Hospital to the tune of $200 million. He will be joined on board by Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and former NASA candidate, Christopher Sembroski, a US Airforce veteran, and Hayley Arceneaux, a doctor's assistant at St Jude and childhood cancer survivor.

The group will apparently reach a higher altitude than the International Space Station as they orbit the planet in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, dubbed Inspiration4. The quick-turnaround documentary will be made in five parts, with the first two premiering on 6 September. Viewers have been promised behind the scenes access of the mission -- from their selection, to footage from inside the spacecraft while it orbits Earth.
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Netflix Announces SpaceX Documentary On Civilian Mission Into Orbit More

Netflix Announces SpaceX Documentary On Civilian Mission Into Orbit

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  • This is a good cause (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Greeneland ( 598616 ) on Thursday August 05, 2021 @02:16AM (#61658159)
    I'm looking forward to this, to see what kind of training is going into flying this mission and because it's a great cause. A relative works in a pediatric cancer ward and it is really tough.

    • Re:This is a good cause (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday August 05, 2021 @04:45AM (#61658381)

      The great cause is great, but ultimately it's a distraction to make the flight look more than yet another joyride for the megarich.

      Rich people typically throw in donations to the children, or cancer research, or some other highly visible feel-good cause when they do rich people things to deflect negative reactions from non-rich people.

      • yes but it still better that they do that than not doing that and since there is no law dictating that rich people have to donate money this is currently the only way, we agree to give them applause and they agree to donate some money.

        • there is no law dictating that rich people have to donate money

          Yes there is: it's called the fucking tax code - something the ultra-rich feel doesn't apply to them.

          • But that is not donating to charity, that is just paying their taxes. And I agree that you seem to have a problem with taxing the rich in the US, but even after having taxed them they will still sit on billions and if events like this can get them to at least put some of it away as donations then by all means go go go.
      • Resentment isn't healthy for anyone. I won't say I'm not jealous, I want to go too, but I'm not going to poison my soul by letting jealousy become resent. You say it's just a "joyride for the megarich", but what I hear is, "those grapes are sour anyway".

        Maybe someday we'll both be able to afford the trip. Wouldn't that be nice? Doesn't that thought feel better to hold than oily bitterness?

        • Rich is fine. There are actually many rich people who are remarkable and commendable, because they made it on their own, fair and square, and they deserve the good life. I ain't got no issues with them.

          Mega-ultra-fucking-kajillionaires isn't, because you just know they got there by exploiting the workforce unfairly, and - more importantly - by dodging taxes.

          Damn right I'm bitter, because they stole my kids' ability to go to college on a reasonable student's budget to buy themselves a fun ride into space, an

          • Where's the cutoff for "ok rich"? 100 million? 1 billion? At what point does the size of someone's bank account guarantee that they are evil?

            Musk is pretty fabulously wealthy, is he bad because it isn't possible to become that rich without hurting people and committing tax fraud? Can you prove that he did? Can you prove anything about your assumption, which I do not share or "just know", that it is not possible to achieve specific levels of wealth without hurting people and breaking tax laws?

            Can yo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They are taking a Crew Dragon Resilience capsule up. Little info on the interior seems to be available, but we have seen it before with the trip to the ISS. The cabin is pretty small. It apparently has a toilet but it has not been shown as far as I can tell.

      Point is I don't think this will be a very comfortable ride. Presumably they have some activities planned for the 3 days.

      • Presumably they have some activities planned for the 3 days.

        I'd love to see them trying to play a game of Monopoly in zero G.

      • It apparently has a toilet but it has not been shown as far as I can tell.

        While "the design is shrouded in proprietary secrecy", it seems that "while passengers are using the toilet, they'll be able to gaze out the windows, according to Jared Isaacman [businessinsider.com]. "And that also happens to be where the glass cupola is. So, you know, when people do inevitably have to use the bathroom, they're going to have one hell of a view."

    • To call it an excellent cause is an understatement, but I haven't had enough coffee to think of a better word.

      What I don't understand is where the money is coming from. It isn't proceeds from the documentary, I don't think one has ever made that much money and it's on Netflix so unless they're donating $200 million it isn't from there. So, is SpaceX donating the cost of the launch, or is the guy footing the bill for the flight also donating the money?

      I guess it doesn't matter that much, but I just don

  • Knocks the competition into a cocked hat (Score:3)

    by Bearhouse ( 1034238 ) on Thursday August 05, 2021 @03:20AM (#61658221)

    Bezon & Branson: "we'll send you up to 50Km for a few minutes..."
    Not astronauts.

    Musk: "Hold ma beer...."

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      To be an astronaut you have to have some meaningful participation in the operation of the spacecraft or the mission though. If these guys are trained to fly it then they might qualify, but if they are just riding on an automated flight controlled from the ground then they won't get to be astronauts.

      • I think the new definition is good. These people wanting to brag about being astronauts are like many honorary PhDs wanting to be called doctors. It's all ego. Fuck off. You got to go to space, just say that.

        • Exactly. They get to say they went to space, not "50km up in the air" like those other two companies. /wink

          • It's still kind of arbitrary right? I don't know the exact distance to escape earth's gravity with a straight vertical launch but it's probably a few hundred kilometers. The guys "flying" with SpaceX at least get to do a few orbits. That's again part of the brag. I "orbited" Earth. If you orbited we assume space but you still never really broke the gravitation field. Even if you went to the moon, that's still essentially true. We can come up with all kinds of silly lines between one place begins and another

      • Yes, and I agree with the new definition, although it does smack somewhat of last minute "I'll fuckup your ego trip, billionaire boy..." Not that I'm necessarily against that.
        However, whilst nobody can deny that everybody on Apollo missions did plenty, can we really say the same about everybody on the shuttle? (John Glenn's trip springs to mind...mind you, he was already a bone fide astronaut so the point's moot)

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I suppose everyone on the Shuttle was there to do a job of some kind, even if it was not related to the Shuttle itself it would have been related to the ISS or an experiment that needed to be done in space.

          These billionaires are just joyriding.

          • I suppose everyone on the Shuttle was there to do a job of some kind, even if it was not related to the Shuttle itself it would have been related to the ISS or an experiment that needed to be done in space.

            These billionaires are just joyriding.

            Allow me to introduce you to Ballast Bill Nelson, [arstechnica.com] NASA Administrator.

        • The new definition, if applied retroactively, eliminates some of the initial astronauts/cosmonauts. This doesn't invalidate the idea, but it provides context to the simple fact it was done for political reasons.

          And accomplished absolutely nothing.

          Bezos, and Branson, provided funding for commercial space flight, they aren't simply Billionaires who went for a joy ride.

          We've treated other, less qualified, billionaires better in the past.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        No really IAM a pilot and a boat captain because this one time

      • To be an astronaut you have to have some meaningful participation in the operation of the spacecraft or the mission though.

        Says who? Wernher von Braun, the father of space travel itself, bragged that he could completely automate the process with no passenger involvement at all. Indeed, the US sent up a chimp before they sent men. The Russians sent a dog. Chuck Yeager famously knocked the Mercury astronauts as "Spam in a can".

        Astronauts... "star sailors" in the Greek... are simply people that go into space. There's nothing written that you have to actually work the craft you're in.

  • Looking forward to space-based reality shows. (Score:4, Funny)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Thursday August 05, 2021 @04:00AM (#61658265)
    Getting sucked out of an airlock is so much more dramatic than being voted off an island. It adds an extra dimension I feel.
  • What the heck are they going to do inside that tiny capsule for 3 whole days? Even 24 hours sounds like an awful long time for untrained civilians to be put in that kind of situation.
  • This sounds like one big "Big Tech" circle jerk, if I've ever heard of one. Netflix stroke Musk's cock, and in turn, Musk stroke's Netflix's cock. We've seen time and time again just how much Musk likes stroking cock. He stroked it bigtime over cybertrucks, Taiwanese kiddy submarines, flamethrowers and dogecoin. If there's one thing that's for sure - he'll keep on strokin'.

  • I hope they do better than "Top Secret UFO Projects: Declassified"! After the big splash in the press, I expected something more than another History Channel crapfest. Throw some ominous music cues, CGI that you paid a kid with a C64 twenty bucks to make, and interviews with three people in between panels at a Star Trek con, mix well, and repeat until the checks stop coming. I watched five of the six episodes out of sheer morbid car-crash curiosity, but had to do it without sound because I could feel my

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