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 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).

I was BLOWN AWAY by this documentary. Such an important topic, our outer space, and what is happening to it. I think we all feel like there is governmental oversight of any rogue companies that decide to build and send rockets capable of sending satellites into Earth orbit, but there really is not! This I found to be TERRIFYING! Bad enough bad actors like China and Russia can do it, but so can pretty much anyone with the money and know-how to build rockets!

I had no idea the volume of traffic orbiting our planet; 15,000 satellites and more going up all the time! Eventually there will be so many that they cannot help but start to run into each other; then what?!? Giant fields of space debris!! Space seemed like that last frontier for peace and tranquility, but leave it to us humans to go and muck that up!

There is a LOT to learn from this EXCELLENT documentary. The journalist that is interspersed throughout it, that apparently produced it, is an exceptional speaker and detailed orator. I was glued to the screen for every moment, then off to my computer when it was over to further research. I saw a couple reviews that slammed this documentary; clearly people incapable of understanding the serious nature of what is going on in our skies, and how massively it is and will impact life on Earth; good, but a lot of REALLY bad!!

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.

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.