Wild Wild Space

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.

I hope I didn't discourage potential viewers for using the term "long-term (business) documentary" in my headline.

Let me reassure you, this documentary - basically following three US-based 'new space' start-up companies over the course of many years - isn't boring at all. Some of the main characters in the film are so colorful that you could be fooled into thinking that you watch a fictional start-up movie, not a documentary.

A little bit of background first: Ashlee Vance (also heavily involved and briefly featured in the documentary himself) is a business journalist. He wrote a book on new space companies ("When the Heavens Went on Sale : The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach" - by Ashlee Vance, 2023) and started filming and interviewing executives as well as academics involved in the space/rocket sectors around the same time.

(I read his book before watching WWS, but this is not a requirement at all. You may even enjoy more surprises watching the documentary without having read his book - otherwise a few spoilers are obviously revealed already.)

Some readers may be vaguely familiar with Ashlee Vance's name because he was the first to write a biography on Elon Musk - who in turn started one of the first private space companies in a Western country, SpaceX.

The WWS documentary and his accompanying new book only feature SpaceX and other pioneering rocket companies started by fellow billionaires and rivals (Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, Richard Branson etc.) in passing.

The main focus of WWS are "normal" (they are anything but normal in all other aspects, trust me) entrepreneurs. Ambitious people who followed in the foot-steps of these business moguls and tried to (and are still trying to) launch space ventures thanks to third-party funding. It goes without saying that most of these companies require billions of dollars until they maybe have a chance to break even and stand on their own feet. As is repeatedly said or allured to in the film: "Space is (very) hard". This is true both in terms of very advanced technology and huge funding needs.

Speaking of money: Ashlee Vance - having toured the globe visiting space companies in places like New Zealand, French Guiana, Ukraine, Russia and the U. S. - noticed that his funds for the project were running low and started to get outside help to focus/improve the script and finally finish the documentary by 2024.

What was once intended as an entire series was cut into one single documentary. His new partners (experienced in the movie sector, eg. Ross Kauffman with an Academy Award for Best Documentary under his belt) in the project also advised him to focus on just a handful of companies.

WWS therefore follows three space start-ups in detail, namely Astra, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab (with a particular focus on the CEO of each venture).

I think it is a much better movie for it, because there's an emotional attachment for the viewer thanks to this focus. The main characters at each of three companies really spring to life. The completely opposite characters and business approaches of two of the CEOs involved (namely Chris Kemp of Astra and Peter Beck of Rocket Lab) already make the entire documentary worth watching.

The movie offers very detailed and generous insights into all three companies. The filmmakers got access to conference calls with investors and even the rocket launch sequences inside the mission control rooms - including nerve-wrecking setbacks and failures - as well as the IPOs of all three companies on the public stock market.

From bedrooms and garage operations with tinkerers - to billions in funding, taking over government launchpads and hiring hundreds of employees. A story of rags to riches. And back to zero in some cases (Space is hard...remember).

I can only recall seeing very few business-related documentaries where external observers got such an intimate access over long periods of time (the three companies are covered from about 2016/2017 until early 2024, with older material mixed in from the company archives and other sources).

The documentary reveals how the grip on space and rockets has shifted from national states, bureaucratic organizations (like NASA) and their long-term suppliers (often huge companies like Boeing, Lockheed etc.) to ambitious, nimble and energetic start-ups who skirt or even overstep established rules.

These tectonic shifts will affect all of us in terms of safety, national security and privacy. The rallying cry behind the movement could be summed up as: Move over, NASA!

Satellite constellations already rule our daily life on Earth right now, for better or worse: From GPS positioning in cars and planes, over emergency calls in remote areas with no conventional cell phone average, to more accurate weather forecasts and troop or refugee movements in or ahead of conflicts across the globe.

The documentary's title is therefore very fitting indeed, the skies have become a Wild Wild Space. Sort of a "land grab in space" in the 21st century. Space is now open for business, not just for a few billionaires or very powerful nation states.

The WWS documentary is eye-opening in this regard, we are only at the very beginning. The private space sector today (2024) is maybe at the development stage of the early Internet/WWW era back in 1994 (if I had to take a guess after spending some time on the subject over the last decade).

Rating: 8/10 for "normal" viewers. Highly recommended, even for people with no particular or prior interest in the space industry. Even 9/10 for audiences interested in space and rockets.

PS: One of my minor gripes with the movie: Space has no boundaries. It would have been great if the documentary also featured a few space start-ups from Asia or Europe, the movie feels a bit U. S.-centric (with the exception of Rocket Lab and its CEO, originating from New Zealand). Maybe a possible sequel can one day move the spotlight to private space and launch efforts on other continents? The private space race is so dynamic in the 2020s that a sequel is warranted in my opinion.

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 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 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!!!