Wild Wild Space

The show opens with Chris Kemp getting in a car with the documentary crew and the first words out of his mouth are that, he doesn't have a valid driver's licence, car insurance or registration for the vehicle! Does that sound like the kind of person you'd want running a company building and launching rockets?

The show is full of maverick's who think they can shortcut lessons learned the hard way by NASA and other nations space agencies..they can't! These people aren't in it for the pure science & exploration, they're nothing short of speculative carpet baggers.

It's more likely that, if they keep going with their cavalier attitudes, they're liable to cost everyone the ball game, if/when one or two out of control satellites cause a chain reaction of shrapnel smashing into each other, until they're all gone and low earth orbit becomes a useless briar patch.

I'm all for get up and go enterprise, but maybe someone should remind them, nobody will be naming schools after people who set humanity back to the 1950's in the name of MAKING MONEY!!!

This thing, whatever it is, seem more or less fake to me. Its like they tried to make a copycat production of Elon Musks life but with other characters.

From start to finish it comes off as some way to steal attention from Elon Musk, some kind of takedown of Elon Musk, a cia production a la information war.

The main characters are described as nerds and certainly looks like it and acts like it, but it also seems to be very much an act. The viewer are peppered with fast clips that seem to lack reality but are attempted to sell themself as reality. For example we get to see fast clips of flashbacks of these main characters past where they are pretended to do crazy stuff in 2006 but filmed with a videorecorder from 1970, it doesnt add up.

This thing is selling you brainwash and lies, its clearly a deep state production to deceive the youth of a false reality.

2/10.

I know, mine is a bold statement. But consider this: in an era of youtube "explainers" (disguised as documentaries) where the visuals guide the narration and where there's an unnecessary amount of "so this is...", "look at this..." , "and now we are going to..." wild wild space is actually a solid, old school, beautiful documentary that requires the audience to put in a bit of effort to appreciate the whole thing.

(I admit I had to watch twice to digest it)

Thematic, not character driven. Yes we follow 3 CEOs/founders of 3 startups meant to send rockets and satellites in the sky (and ideally make money in the process) and yes their personalities and actions may represent different shades of humanity... but the background color is pretty much the same: ambition.

I do think it is intentional: everything related to the 3 guys has to slowly fade away to leave space (pun intended) to the thematic train of this ambitious work, smartly introduced in the title. The outer space as the last frontier is a wild wild space where everything is possible like in the old days and big fortune are just around the corner. It's a wild wild space ladies and gentlemen. Or... is it?

Not really: the funding needed, the crazy scientific know how, the various government' agencies... it's all but a no man's land where the fastest and the strongest and the luckiest can get their share of the pie. It's a highly regulated game that only those in the known can eventually have access to it, even though it will affect the rest of humanity.

The main obstacle for the contemporary minds (affected by high fast editing + in your face exposition) is exactly this: we drift away from the characters to get to the core of it: space and who runs the show.

Editing is excellent, loved the pacing. Not sure if it's because of the nature of the subject matter (you know build a rocket slowly and then booom go up in space) but the way it floes is one of the most enjoyable experiences on screen in a while.

Remarkable the fact that the filming crew followed the CEOs and whatnot for several years. Congrats for the dedication.

Sotrywise good job deciding to not include any technical jargon and so on. It would have been distracting.

Side note: pretty sure the 3 guys allowed the production to follow them to get some good PR exposure, like Elon Musk did with "Revenge of the Electric Car"

The documentary follows two small companies nearly invisible in the shadow of SpaceX as they attempt to carve their own slice of near Earth launches pie.

One company is driven by a man lacking formal education in rocketry, rejected by NASA but driven as a pioneer should be. New Zealander Peter Beck is the hearth, soul and charm of this documentary, his pursuit of space is endearing and he's someone who's company I'd gladly follow in a continuous series as they pursue further milestones.

The other company was founded as a result of a meeting between Peter Beck and Chris Kemp. What was meant to be a partnership resulted in Chris Kemp starting his own company. Everything Beck is, Kemp isn't. The wannabe Musk oozes arrogance and illusion of grandeur and his pursuit is governed by one very simple goal... making money. To his credit, he's apparently capable of selling snow to an Eskimo, his only redeeming quality in pursuit of orbit. Everything else is accomplished by people around him.

The contrast between the two companies can't be more evident.

The best part about this documentary is showing how American politics and bureaucracy managed to cripple progress since the golden age of space exploration. If these small companies can accomplish as much as they did in relatively short period of time, imagine what a massive well funded organization could have accomplished in decades. It's infuriating.

All in all, it's a fun watch.

This film set out to be comprehensive and engaging to the average viewer and IMHO succeeds on those terms. The you-are-there vibe is really quite good. You can vicariously get a feeling for what working at a rocket start-up might be like (I was in one briefly MANY years ago).

One observation is that the extreme visionary approaches tend to succeed. Peter Beck of Rocket Labs saw an opportunity and went for it; he (initially) envisioned smaller rockets than SpaceX at a reasonable cost (but with outstanding quality). Peter didn't let his lack of formal training stop him; he seems to be a of force of intellect -- interesting guy.

Planet Labs went for ultra-small low-cost satellites; in their initial experiments they used cell-phones as the payloads! They're a great example of *evolutionary* engineering, whereas SpaceX often does *revolutionary* engineering.

Chris Kemp at Astra Space seemed to believe he would be a player in this "space" (no pun) by sheer force of will. He's persuasive, but the company seemed to have a "me too" approach -- they wanted to be like Rocket Labs but cheaper. There didn't seem to be more to the business plan than that.

The movie does an excellent job of showing the evolution of these companies and how things worked out for them (it wasn't all good BTW). HOWEVER, the film doesn't go into technical details, such as WHY things went wrong; we're simply told things like an engine didn't fire (or cut off too soon).

This is a seven-star film for casual viewers, and probably a six-star film for those with relevant engineering skills (who might have appreciated a few more details). That's 6.5 stars overall, but I'm rounding down to six (6) stars due to some inaccurate statements about the impact of the Kessler Effect (which wouldn't prevent launches to higher orbits or other planets if it occurred).