Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space review – does Elon Musk really need the free PR?
Netflix’s new documentary series sells the first all-civilian flight to space as an exercise in philanthropy, but it’s little more than a privilege-fuelled puff piece for the billionaire’s adventures
Isaacson acknowledges his privilege more overtly, but the $200m for St Jude’s is clearly considered to cover a multitude of what some might categorise as moral sins.
Never mind. This is all “a profound breakthrough” and everything’s OK because the other seats are going to ordinary people, albeit ones who fit the “Mission Pillars” of Hope, Generosity, Prosperity and Leadership. The inclusion of this emetic element is not the programme’s fault, at least. It is America’s.
Isaacman, who offers the most nous, has masses of flight experience under his belt and serves as flight commander, representing Leadership. Doctor’s assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, who was treated at and now works at St Jude’s, is in the Hope seat. Christopher Sembroski, who donated as part of the fundraising raffle, is Generosity (though perhaps this should also be in recognition of the friend who actually won and gave Sembroski his seat. This is not mentioned in the programme, which – as mentioned – is in search of a simple, streamlined narrative at all times. The seat transfer may be inconsequential but you wonder how many more awkward facts might have been left out). The final seat, Prosperity, went to Sian Proctor, geology professor and major in the Civil Air Patrol (another fact that’s glossed over, lest it seem, perhaps, that these ordinary Americans on the first civilian mission do not seem to the public quite as ordinary or civilian as they might).
I’m sure the puff nature of the piece will become less obvious as the launch approaches and genuine drama and tensions start to fill the hours. But that doesn’t alter what it is. Everyone’s time and money, all those billions of it, could be better spent.
Phoenix teacher just days away from going to space with historic Space X 'Inspiration4'
BRIANA WHITNEY
POSTED 8 HRS AGO
Dr. Sian Proctor was chosen to be one of the astronauts on board the historic launch.
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5 ) - We are now just days away from the first ever all-civilian mission to space, and part of that four-person crew is a Phoenix teacher who has waited her whole life to go to space.
Space X's Inspiration4 will make history launching into space next week. The countdown to their flight is now the focus of a new docuseries on Netflix, including how Phoenix's own Dr. Sian Proctor was chosen to be one of the astronauts. Proctor can do it all - she's a teacher, she's been in space simulation experiments, and what won her the "prosperity" seat in the Inspiration4 was her poetry and art.
Arizona’s Family caught up with her right after she learned she was selected. “It was very emotional when I found out. I kind of reference it to when Harry Potter finds out he’s a wizard and he’s like wait, I can’t be a wizard! You picked me!” Proctor said.
Proctor has been working up to this for decades. “My only fear was that this moment was never going to come or happen for me,” she told us after she was selected.
Arizona’s Family first met Proctor and her friend Erin Bonilla before the pandemic, when they were heading to Hawaii to live in a Mars simulator to study effects on the body. Proctor was already making history then.
“Seven years ago, going from the very first crew to now being a crew that’s all female is very exciting,” she told us then.
Sian Proctor and Erin Bonilla are analog astronauts
Proctor barely missed the cut to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. Space is in her blood. She was born in Guam because her dad worked with a NASA contractor on the Apollo mission.
Now just days before the Space X launch, we’re seeing those behind-the-scenes moments in the Netflix documentary 'Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space' that Bonilla was a part of.
“Once she found out she was selected she was able to tell somebody about it. And I was the person she could tell during that time,” Bonilla said. “It was a really emotional moment as you can tell in the documentary, but it’s been years coming for her.” Bonilla is heading to Florida on Wednesday to be with Proctor and the crew and will be there in person for the historic launch. “It’ll be pretty awesome to be there with everybody to see it launch, and to know that there’s somebody we all know and love on that rocket is going to be pretty amazing,” Bonilla said.
Sian Proctor will be the 4th African American woman to ever be in space. This mission is also raising hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research for St. Jude. The launch is set for Wednesday September 15.
Netflix’s new documentary series sells the first all-civilian flight to space as an exercise in philanthropy, but it’s little more than a privilege-fuelled puff piece for the billionaire’s adventures
Space oddities … Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux,
Sian Proctor and Christopher Sembroski in the Netflix show.
Photograph: John Kraus/Courtesy of Netflix
Lucy Mangan
@LucyMangan
Mon 6 Sep 2021
While I’m still able – “allowed” is possibly the verb I want – I would like to register my objection to adverts masquerading as legitimate streaming content on a subscription service for which I pay good money. This is not how that particular model is supposed to work. I realise, of course, that I am Cnut howling at the digital waves. But proving our powerlessness before them is about the only thing left to us.
Netflix’s new documentary series, or “documentary series”, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, is the offender in this case. It is designed to track the recruitment process, preparation for and then – in as close to real time as possible – the launch of the first all-civilian flight into space, by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
The first two episodes introduce us to the crew in Musk’s Inspiration4 project, but only after we have been thoroughly informed of the greatness of what we are about to witness. Space is “humanity’s great taunting”, and non-astronauts circling the earth in the reusable Dragon rocket is “a hinge moment”. “It is a certainty that we will become a multi-planetary species”, you see, “and this the next significant step.” I hope you are feeling suitably awed and portended upon. If not, there’s plenty more where that came from.
We meet Jared Isaacman, a high school dropout who founded his first company, Shift4Payments – a PayPal type operation that now processes $200bn (£145bn) a year for US restaurants and hotels – from his parents’ basement when he was a teenager. Isaacman is that rarest of beasts – a genuinely personable billionaire – and, when he bought all four seats on the flight, one imagines Musk must have been elated with his charming frontman.
Not that the fact that Isaacman bought the seats is made explicit in the programme. Possibly this is because it is thought so self-evident that it does not need to be. Or possibly not. Much is made of the fundraising side of the endeavour (Inspiration4 aims to raise $200m for St Jude’s children’s hospital in Memphis and Isaacman has already donated half the sum) and the shift from the spirit of national, collective endeavour and investment in space exploration to private individual and commercial businesses is not touched on. The closest we come to any kind of ethical consideration or probing is a single question to Musk about whether we should be looking to solve some of the manifold problems on Earth before looking to the stars, which he is allowed to bat away. “We should spend 99.9% of our resources on solving [them],” he says, which is an intriguing use of “we” and “our”. “The rest can be spent on an exciting and inspiring future … If life is all about problems, what’s the point in living?” So – that’s all sorted, then.
Lucy Mangan
@LucyMangan
Mon 6 Sep 2021
While I’m still able – “allowed” is possibly the verb I want – I would like to register my objection to adverts masquerading as legitimate streaming content on a subscription service for which I pay good money. This is not how that particular model is supposed to work. I realise, of course, that I am Cnut howling at the digital waves. But proving our powerlessness before them is about the only thing left to us.
Netflix’s new documentary series, or “documentary series”, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, is the offender in this case. It is designed to track the recruitment process, preparation for and then – in as close to real time as possible – the launch of the first all-civilian flight into space, by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
The first two episodes introduce us to the crew in Musk’s Inspiration4 project, but only after we have been thoroughly informed of the greatness of what we are about to witness. Space is “humanity’s great taunting”, and non-astronauts circling the earth in the reusable Dragon rocket is “a hinge moment”. “It is a certainty that we will become a multi-planetary species”, you see, “and this the next significant step.” I hope you are feeling suitably awed and portended upon. If not, there’s plenty more where that came from.
We meet Jared Isaacman, a high school dropout who founded his first company, Shift4Payments – a PayPal type operation that now processes $200bn (£145bn) a year for US restaurants and hotels – from his parents’ basement when he was a teenager. Isaacman is that rarest of beasts – a genuinely personable billionaire – and, when he bought all four seats on the flight, one imagines Musk must have been elated with his charming frontman.
Not that the fact that Isaacman bought the seats is made explicit in the programme. Possibly this is because it is thought so self-evident that it does not need to be. Or possibly not. Much is made of the fundraising side of the endeavour (Inspiration4 aims to raise $200m for St Jude’s children’s hospital in Memphis and Isaacman has already donated half the sum) and the shift from the spirit of national, collective endeavour and investment in space exploration to private individual and commercial businesses is not touched on. The closest we come to any kind of ethical consideration or probing is a single question to Musk about whether we should be looking to solve some of the manifold problems on Earth before looking to the stars, which he is allowed to bat away. “We should spend 99.9% of our resources on solving [them],” he says, which is an intriguing use of “we” and “our”. “The rest can be spent on an exciting and inspiring future … If life is all about problems, what’s the point in living?” So – that’s all sorted, then.
Isaacson acknowledges his privilege more overtly, but the $200m for St Jude’s is clearly considered to cover a multitude of what some might categorise as moral sins.
Never mind. This is all “a profound breakthrough” and everything’s OK because the other seats are going to ordinary people, albeit ones who fit the “Mission Pillars” of Hope, Generosity, Prosperity and Leadership. The inclusion of this emetic element is not the programme’s fault, at least. It is America’s.
Isaacman, who offers the most nous, has masses of flight experience under his belt and serves as flight commander, representing Leadership. Doctor’s assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, who was treated at and now works at St Jude’s, is in the Hope seat. Christopher Sembroski, who donated as part of the fundraising raffle, is Generosity (though perhaps this should also be in recognition of the friend who actually won and gave Sembroski his seat. This is not mentioned in the programme, which – as mentioned – is in search of a simple, streamlined narrative at all times. The seat transfer may be inconsequential but you wonder how many more awkward facts might have been left out). The final seat, Prosperity, went to Sian Proctor, geology professor and major in the Civil Air Patrol (another fact that’s glossed over, lest it seem, perhaps, that these ordinary Americans on the first civilian mission do not seem to the public quite as ordinary or civilian as they might).
I’m sure the puff nature of the piece will become less obvious as the launch approaches and genuine drama and tensions start to fill the hours. But that doesn’t alter what it is. Everyone’s time and money, all those billions of it, could be better spent.
Phoenix teacher just days away from going to space with historic Space X 'Inspiration4'
BRIANA WHITNEY
POSTED 8 HRS AGO
Dr. Sian Proctor was chosen to be one of the astronauts on board the historic launch.
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5 ) - We are now just days away from the first ever all-civilian mission to space, and part of that four-person crew is a Phoenix teacher who has waited her whole life to go to space.
Space X's Inspiration4 will make history launching into space next week. The countdown to their flight is now the focus of a new docuseries on Netflix, including how Phoenix's own Dr. Sian Proctor was chosen to be one of the astronauts. Proctor can do it all - she's a teacher, she's been in space simulation experiments, and what won her the "prosperity" seat in the Inspiration4 was her poetry and art.
Arizona’s Family caught up with her right after she learned she was selected. “It was very emotional when I found out. I kind of reference it to when Harry Potter finds out he’s a wizard and he’s like wait, I can’t be a wizard! You picked me!” Proctor said.
Proctor has been working up to this for decades. “My only fear was that this moment was never going to come or happen for me,” she told us after she was selected.
Arizona’s Family first met Proctor and her friend Erin Bonilla before the pandemic, when they were heading to Hawaii to live in a Mars simulator to study effects on the body. Proctor was already making history then.
“Seven years ago, going from the very first crew to now being a crew that’s all female is very exciting,” she told us then.
Sian Proctor and Erin Bonilla are analog astronauts
Proctor barely missed the cut to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. Space is in her blood. She was born in Guam because her dad worked with a NASA contractor on the Apollo mission.
Now just days before the Space X launch, we’re seeing those behind-the-scenes moments in the Netflix documentary 'Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space' that Bonilla was a part of.
“Once she found out she was selected she was able to tell somebody about it. And I was the person she could tell during that time,” Bonilla said. “It was a really emotional moment as you can tell in the documentary, but it’s been years coming for her.” Bonilla is heading to Florida on Wednesday to be with Proctor and the crew and will be there in person for the historic launch. “It’ll be pretty awesome to be there with everybody to see it launch, and to know that there’s somebody we all know and love on that rocket is going to be pretty amazing,” Bonilla said.
Sian Proctor will be the 4th African American woman to ever be in space. This mission is also raising hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research for St. Jude. The launch is set for Wednesday September 15.
The billionaire is financing the four seats on the mission to raise awareness for a children's hospital.
India Today Web Desk
September 7, 2021
Jared Issacman is the founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments. (Photo: Inspiration 4 Mission)
When SpaceX's Inspiration-4 mission lifts off from the launch pad that once saw Neil Armstrong soar to the heavens on Apollo-11, the crew onboard will go down in the history books as the first all-civilian crew to leap into low Earth orbit. The September 15 launch will seal SpaceX as a leader in not just successfully launching and returning trained astronauts and cargo from space but also an amateur crew that has no experience in space travel and astrophysics.
While the trip will bring brownie points for Elon Musk amid his brawl with Jeff Bezos, the mission will lock Jared Isaacman into glory not just for commanding the all-civilian crew but also for philanthropy. Why? Because the billionaire is financing the four seats on the mission to raise awareness for a children's hospital.
The four-member crew strapped into SpaceX's Dragon capsule will orbit the Earth for three days before returning.
Jared Issacman is the founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments. (Photo: Inspiration 4 Mission)
When SpaceX's Inspiration-4 mission lifts off from the launch pad that once saw Neil Armstrong soar to the heavens on Apollo-11, the crew onboard will go down in the history books as the first all-civilian crew to leap into low Earth orbit. The September 15 launch will seal SpaceX as a leader in not just successfully launching and returning trained astronauts and cargo from space but also an amateur crew that has no experience in space travel and astrophysics.
While the trip will bring brownie points for Elon Musk amid his brawl with Jeff Bezos, the mission will lock Jared Isaacman into glory not just for commanding the all-civilian crew but also for philanthropy. Why? Because the billionaire is financing the four seats on the mission to raise awareness for a children's hospital.
The four-member crew strapped into SpaceX's Dragon capsule will orbit the Earth for three days before returning.
Who is Jared Isaacman?
Jared Issacman is the founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments, which provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions “powering over 350 software providers across industries.” However, Issacman is more than a corporate guy in a suit.
Starting from prop planes, Isaacman jumped to fighter planes within a few years. (Photo: Inspiration 4)
At 38 years, the billionaire is an accomplished jet pilot, who is rated to fly commercial and military aircraft and holds several world records including two Speed-Around-The-World flights in 2008 and 2009 that raised money and awareness for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
A high school dropout, Isaacman began his entrepreneurial ventures when he was just 15 years old. According to Forbes, at the age of 28, he started what would become the world’s largest 'private air force', Draken International, and then sold it to the defence contractor Blackstone. A decade later he is a billionaire who has taken his compaspny public. Shift4 Payments today handles more than $200 billion in payments every year for a third of the US's restaurants and hotels, including giants like Hilton, Four Seasons, KFC, Forbes reported.
An aviation enthusiast
The billionaire has financed the four seats, paying SpaceX an undisclosed amount for the three-day trip at an altitude that is above the Hubble Space Telescope’s orbit.
Isaacman has been part of several air shows flying around the world displaying his air superiority while sitting in a jet cruising at Mach speed. The billionaire boasts of an impressive lineup of nine planes in his garage including a MiG.
The billionaire is an accomplished jet pilot, who is rated to fly
commercial and military aircraft. (Photo: Inspiration 4 Mission)
Starting from prop planes, Isaacman jumped to fighter planes and at the age of 26 years, he completed the fastest around-the-world flight in a light jet. He flew for 61 hours and 51 minutes, breaking the previous record by 21 hours. During that flight in 2009, he raised $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He then joined hands with Sean Gustafson, a member of US Air Force Thunderbirds (air display team) and formed an air-show squadron called the Black Diamond Jet Team.
He not only flies jets at speeds faster than the speed of sound but has been known to scale Mt. Vinson in Antarctica. While he failed to scale it due to dehydration, he has said he will try again.
Isaacman’s trip to space is different from Jeff Bezos & Richard Branson
The hype around space tourism began with Richard Branson's flight to the edge of space onboard the Virgin Galactic flight earlier this year. Jeff Bezos followed him on Blue Origin’s maiden trip to space. Isaacman’s trip to space will be different from his predecessors, who had not more than 10 minutes to experience the flight, weightlessness and landing. His all-civilian trip will last three days.
Jared Isaacman sitting in the Cupola on top of the Crew Dragon capsule.
Starting from prop planes, Isaacman jumped to fighter planes and at the age of 26 years, he completed the fastest around-the-world flight in a light jet. He flew for 61 hours and 51 minutes, breaking the previous record by 21 hours. During that flight in 2009, he raised $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He then joined hands with Sean Gustafson, a member of US Air Force Thunderbirds (air display team) and formed an air-show squadron called the Black Diamond Jet Team.
He not only flies jets at speeds faster than the speed of sound but has been known to scale Mt. Vinson in Antarctica. While he failed to scale it due to dehydration, he has said he will try again.
Isaacman’s trip to space is different from Jeff Bezos & Richard Branson
The hype around space tourism began with Richard Branson's flight to the edge of space onboard the Virgin Galactic flight earlier this year. Jeff Bezos followed him on Blue Origin’s maiden trip to space. Isaacman’s trip to space will be different from his predecessors, who had not more than 10 minutes to experience the flight, weightlessness and landing. His all-civilian trip will last three days.
Jared Isaacman sitting in the Cupola on top of the Crew Dragon capsule.
(Photo: Inspiration 4 Mission)
SpaceX has already displayed the Cupola, designed on top of the crew Dragon, that will offer a unique view of the planet in its full glory.
During the three-day flight, the four-member crew will raise awareness and charity for St Jude Research Hospital while flying at 17,500 metres per hour around the planet.
“The crew of Inspiration4 is eager to use our mission to help make a better future for those who will launch in the years and decades to come. We are proud that our flight will help influence all those who will travel after us and look forward to seeing how this mission will help shape the beginning of a new era for space exploration," Isaacman said.
SpaceX has already displayed the Cupola, designed on top of the crew Dragon, that will offer a unique view of the planet in its full glory.
During the three-day flight, the four-member crew will raise awareness and charity for St Jude Research Hospital while flying at 17,500 metres per hour around the planet.
“The crew of Inspiration4 is eager to use our mission to help make a better future for those who will launch in the years and decades to come. We are proud that our flight will help influence all those who will travel after us and look forward to seeing how this mission will help shape the beginning of a new era for space exploration," Isaacman said.
‘The point is ambition’: are we ready to follow Netflix into space?
The ambitious new look at SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, the streaming platform’s first real-time docuseries, takes reality television to space
The ambitious new look at SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, the streaming platform’s first real-time docuseries, takes reality television to space
If all goes according to plan, the final episode, turned around on a snap production timeline, will capture the Inspiration4’s crew successful return to Earth.
Photograph: John Kraus/Netflix
Adrian Horton
@adrian_horton
Tue 7 Sep 2021
The rise of commercial space travel is here, and for the vast majority who cannot afford its millions-plus price tag, streaming platforms are here to capture it. Starting this week, Netflix will air the first two installments of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, its first docuseries to cover an event – SpaceX’s launch of its first all-civilian crew on a three-day trip circling Earth – in “near real time.” Subsequent episodes will document the four astronauts’ preparation for the 15 September launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Episodes three and four will air just two days prior; a feature-length finale film of the mission itself will air in late September.
How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution
The series, directed by veteran sports documentarian Jason Hehir, best known for The Last Dance, promises to take audiences behind the scenes of the Inspiration4 mission, from the astronaut selection to the training and eventual takeoff. Netflix, as well as the passengers and SpaceX figures introduced in the first two episodes, are billing the trip as a paradigm shift in space exploration: an aperture in commercial space travel, a small but significant advancement toward the proliferation of rocket transportation, and new frontier for reality television.
“Inspiration4 is just a really small step along that journey toward a Jetsons world where everyone’s going to jump in their spacecraft and journey in the worlds beyond ours,” Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old billionaire chief executive of Shift4 Payments and long-time flight enthusiast who will be the mission’s commander, told the Guardian. “I don’t think it’s just going to be a few people for a long time,” he added, comparing space travel now, executed by private companies such as Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic with exorbitant price tags, to the early days of experimental aviation. “This is starting with a few, for sure, but this going to open up to the many.”
Until then, commercial space travel remains an ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive club predominantly spurred by the mega-rich, with live-streams for everyone else. In July, Blue Origin live-streamed its launch of Jeff Bezos on a 11-minute suborbital space journey on its YouTube channel and on Amazon Prime; Virgin Galactic also streamed founder Richard Branson’s 59-minute space flight on YouTube, and recruited a popular science TikTok star for a future trip. It’s a given, as the environmentally questionable business of space tourism continues to expand, that reality TV will ride along – in April, Nasa signed a Space Act Agreement with the production company “Space Hero” to “[facilitate] initial cooperation and information sharing” for a competition show that would send the winner on an expensive trip to the International Space Station as early as 2023.
There’s a game show undercurrent to Countdown, the Netflix series, whose first two episodes predominantly serve to introduce viewers to the civilian astronauts, selected by a Willy Wonka-like arbitrary process tied to four core mission values.
Besides Isaacman (“Leadership”), who declined to specify the amount paid to participate in the mission (but did say proceeds raised for the pediatric cancer specialists at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee would exceed the cost of the mission), the group includes Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old pediatric cancer survivor and physician assistant at St Jude’s, which nominated her to symbolize the value of “Hope”; Sian Proctor, 51, of Phoenix, Arizona, a geology professor who won a spot on Inspiration4 through an competition assessing entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to go semi-viral (“Prosperity”); and Chris Sembrowski, 42, a data engineer and air force veteran from Everett, Washington, selected off a list of donors to St Jude’s as part of Inspiration4’s Superbowl campaign (“Generosity”).
All are new to astrodynamics, ordinary figures unused to cameras and spotlight. It’s a far cry from Hehir’s mission on The Last Dance, in which his team endeavored to “de-iconize” a celebrity as ubiquitous and iconic as Michael Jordan. Though Countdown will build, in real time, the iconography of Inspiration4, Hehir assures that the project is not acting as gauzy PR for the company – “I didn’t see it as our role to aggrandize SpaceX,” he told the Guardian. “I thought it was necessary to outline what their mission is, why are we doing this – because one of the first questions is always that it’s another billionaire going to space, what’s the point? The point is ambition, seeing what else is out there, and the point in a charitable sense is raising $200m for St Jude’s.”
This is the most common criticism levied at SpaceX, and private space travel in general, one Hehir floats midway through the first episode – why send, or care about, billionaires going to space when there’s an abundance of earthbound issues that need addressing, most pressingly the climate emergency. Asked his response to such backlash, Isaacman echoed his answer in the first episode of the series: “We absolutely believe in balance here,” he said. “It’s been right from the start, from the creation of Inspiration4, that we’ve said: ‘we have to address some of the problems of today to earn the right to make progress for tomorrow,’” pointing to the fundraising effort for St Jude’s.
Adrian Horton
@adrian_horton
Tue 7 Sep 2021
The rise of commercial space travel is here, and for the vast majority who cannot afford its millions-plus price tag, streaming platforms are here to capture it. Starting this week, Netflix will air the first two installments of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, its first docuseries to cover an event – SpaceX’s launch of its first all-civilian crew on a three-day trip circling Earth – in “near real time.” Subsequent episodes will document the four astronauts’ preparation for the 15 September launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Episodes three and four will air just two days prior; a feature-length finale film of the mission itself will air in late September.
How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution
The series, directed by veteran sports documentarian Jason Hehir, best known for The Last Dance, promises to take audiences behind the scenes of the Inspiration4 mission, from the astronaut selection to the training and eventual takeoff. Netflix, as well as the passengers and SpaceX figures introduced in the first two episodes, are billing the trip as a paradigm shift in space exploration: an aperture in commercial space travel, a small but significant advancement toward the proliferation of rocket transportation, and new frontier for reality television.
“Inspiration4 is just a really small step along that journey toward a Jetsons world where everyone’s going to jump in their spacecraft and journey in the worlds beyond ours,” Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old billionaire chief executive of Shift4 Payments and long-time flight enthusiast who will be the mission’s commander, told the Guardian. “I don’t think it’s just going to be a few people for a long time,” he added, comparing space travel now, executed by private companies such as Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic with exorbitant price tags, to the early days of experimental aviation. “This is starting with a few, for sure, but this going to open up to the many.”
Until then, commercial space travel remains an ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive club predominantly spurred by the mega-rich, with live-streams for everyone else. In July, Blue Origin live-streamed its launch of Jeff Bezos on a 11-minute suborbital space journey on its YouTube channel and on Amazon Prime; Virgin Galactic also streamed founder Richard Branson’s 59-minute space flight on YouTube, and recruited a popular science TikTok star for a future trip. It’s a given, as the environmentally questionable business of space tourism continues to expand, that reality TV will ride along – in April, Nasa signed a Space Act Agreement with the production company “Space Hero” to “[facilitate] initial cooperation and information sharing” for a competition show that would send the winner on an expensive trip to the International Space Station as early as 2023.
There’s a game show undercurrent to Countdown, the Netflix series, whose first two episodes predominantly serve to introduce viewers to the civilian astronauts, selected by a Willy Wonka-like arbitrary process tied to four core mission values.
Besides Isaacman (“Leadership”), who declined to specify the amount paid to participate in the mission (but did say proceeds raised for the pediatric cancer specialists at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee would exceed the cost of the mission), the group includes Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old pediatric cancer survivor and physician assistant at St Jude’s, which nominated her to symbolize the value of “Hope”; Sian Proctor, 51, of Phoenix, Arizona, a geology professor who won a spot on Inspiration4 through an competition assessing entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to go semi-viral (“Prosperity”); and Chris Sembrowski, 42, a data engineer and air force veteran from Everett, Washington, selected off a list of donors to St Jude’s as part of Inspiration4’s Superbowl campaign (“Generosity”).
All are new to astrodynamics, ordinary figures unused to cameras and spotlight. It’s a far cry from Hehir’s mission on The Last Dance, in which his team endeavored to “de-iconize” a celebrity as ubiquitous and iconic as Michael Jordan. Though Countdown will build, in real time, the iconography of Inspiration4, Hehir assures that the project is not acting as gauzy PR for the company – “I didn’t see it as our role to aggrandize SpaceX,” he told the Guardian. “I thought it was necessary to outline what their mission is, why are we doing this – because one of the first questions is always that it’s another billionaire going to space, what’s the point? The point is ambition, seeing what else is out there, and the point in a charitable sense is raising $200m for St Jude’s.”
This is the most common criticism levied at SpaceX, and private space travel in general, one Hehir floats midway through the first episode – why send, or care about, billionaires going to space when there’s an abundance of earthbound issues that need addressing, most pressingly the climate emergency. Asked his response to such backlash, Isaacman echoed his answer in the first episode of the series: “We absolutely believe in balance here,” he said. “It’s been right from the start, from the creation of Inspiration4, that we’ve said: ‘we have to address some of the problems of today to earn the right to make progress for tomorrow,’” pointing to the fundraising effort for St Jude’s.
Photograph: John Kraus/2021 Inspiration4 2021/Netflix/AFP/Getty Images
SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, appears in the first episode for brief overviews on the mission of Inspiration4 (civilian orbital space flight) and the company at large (colonization of Mars). It was “necessary to have [Musk] in it,” Hehir said, “because he is the face of that company and I felt that we owe it to our viewers for him to do two things. One, to articulate what the company’s mission is, and then two, to address the criticism that is so pervasive these days, of billionaires going into space and the privilege of wealth.” (Musk’s answer to the billionaire-critique is that “99%-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth” but a multi-planet, space-bearing civilization is an “exciting, inspiring future.”)
“I had no interest in mythologizing that company or making it out that they’re saviors of the world,” Hehir said. “But I do think it’s important if you’re going to understand the ambition of the mission, to understand the ambition of the company itself.”
If all goes according to plan, the final episode, turned around on a snap days-long production timeline, will capture the Inspiration4’s crew successful return to Earth. The first two episodes find each weighing the inherent risk of space travel; Proctor, in particular, remembers watching the Challenger disaster exploded on live television in 1986, killing all seven crew on board (captured on camera: the shock and grief of Grace and Edward Corrigan, whose daughter Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire, was to be the first American civilian in space).
“I understand what calculated risk is and what the reward is,” she told the Guardian, “and the reward of human space flight far exceeds the risk.”
Proctor, who was born in Guam, where her father worked for Nasa at an Apollo tracking station, will be only the fourth black American women ever to travel to space (to date, only about 600 people have made the journey). Bubbling with a Ms Frizzle-esque enthusiasm for space exploration, Proctor is using to her spot aboard Inspiration4 to highlight black women’s long-overlooked role in American space travel. “We’re opening up the door for people who normally would have thought of being an astronaut or going to space, giving them the insight into how we’re doing it, and how times are changing,” she said of participating in the first all-civilian space flight.
“Old space was exclusive and you had to be the best of the best, you had to fit certain criteria. This is new space that’s emerging, that enables us to open up who gets to go and participate and write the narrative of human space flight,” she added, mapping out what she called a “Jedi” space — Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive.
It remains to be seen if that narrative of a more democratic space will come to pass – and if Inspiration4 will push past skepticism of ultra-expensive, privately funded space flight. Regardless, the mission, and the messaging attached to it, will be televised, bringing the vast frontier to your personal screen.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space starts 7 September on Netflix
SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, appears in the first episode for brief overviews on the mission of Inspiration4 (civilian orbital space flight) and the company at large (colonization of Mars). It was “necessary to have [Musk] in it,” Hehir said, “because he is the face of that company and I felt that we owe it to our viewers for him to do two things. One, to articulate what the company’s mission is, and then two, to address the criticism that is so pervasive these days, of billionaires going into space and the privilege of wealth.” (Musk’s answer to the billionaire-critique is that “99%-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth” but a multi-planet, space-bearing civilization is an “exciting, inspiring future.”)
“I had no interest in mythologizing that company or making it out that they’re saviors of the world,” Hehir said. “But I do think it’s important if you’re going to understand the ambition of the mission, to understand the ambition of the company itself.”
If all goes according to plan, the final episode, turned around on a snap days-long production timeline, will capture the Inspiration4’s crew successful return to Earth. The first two episodes find each weighing the inherent risk of space travel; Proctor, in particular, remembers watching the Challenger disaster exploded on live television in 1986, killing all seven crew on board (captured on camera: the shock and grief of Grace and Edward Corrigan, whose daughter Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire, was to be the first American civilian in space).
“I understand what calculated risk is and what the reward is,” she told the Guardian, “and the reward of human space flight far exceeds the risk.”
Proctor, who was born in Guam, where her father worked for Nasa at an Apollo tracking station, will be only the fourth black American women ever to travel to space (to date, only about 600 people have made the journey). Bubbling with a Ms Frizzle-esque enthusiasm for space exploration, Proctor is using to her spot aboard Inspiration4 to highlight black women’s long-overlooked role in American space travel. “We’re opening up the door for people who normally would have thought of being an astronaut or going to space, giving them the insight into how we’re doing it, and how times are changing,” she said of participating in the first all-civilian space flight.
“Old space was exclusive and you had to be the best of the best, you had to fit certain criteria. This is new space that’s emerging, that enables us to open up who gets to go and participate and write the narrative of human space flight,” she added, mapping out what she called a “Jedi” space — Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive.
It remains to be seen if that narrative of a more democratic space will come to pass – and if Inspiration4 will push past skepticism of ultra-expensive, privately funded space flight. Regardless, the mission, and the messaging attached to it, will be televised, bringing the vast frontier to your personal screen.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space starts 7 September on Netflix
Netflix Strokes Elon Musk’s Otherworldly Ego With ‘Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space’
The new docuseries, chronicling the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4—the first all-civilian flight to orbit Earth—feels like “prepackaged corporate publicity.”
Nick Schager
Updated Sep. 07, 2021
John Kraus/Netflix
Any current review of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is inherently incomplete, since the five-part Netflix docuseries is aiming to debut in real time alongside the event it’s depicting: the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4, which will be the first all-civilian flight to orbit the Earth—a feat it’ll accomplish multiple times during its three-day journey, at speeds of 17,500 mph and at a height greater than that of the International Space Station. Consequently, the only episodes available to press at the moment are its first two prologue installments (premiering Sept. 6); chapters three and four will hit the streaming service on Sept. 13, and a feature-length finale—detailing the actual mission—is set to land in late September, shortly after the Inspiration4 touches back down on Earth.
Those concluding segments will no doubt deliver up-close-and-personal footage from inside the Inspiration4 Crew Dragon capsule that will house its four amateur astronauts, who will be launched into space via a previously used Falcon 9 rocket. In its maiden passages, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is basically a long-winded promotional video crafted to stoke excitement—and offer justifications—for the endeavor, which just about everyone here touts as a history-making project that will help us get closer to answering the most profound questions about existence and serve as the first step in mankind’s quest to become a multi-planetary species. It’s an aggressive sales pitch masquerading as a typical Netflix non-fiction venture, helmed by The Last Dance’s Jason Hehir with all the dewy-eyed melodrama, swelling music, and rousing headshots that a 45-minute episode can contain.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space insistently pushes its message from the get-go. According to Time’s chief science editor Jeffrey Kluger, Inspiration4 is “a hinge point in history, and will kick the doors open to space for the rest of us.” That’s because, by sending non-professional astronauts into space, the undertaking will pave the way for more commercial flights, as well as further the goal of reaching deeper into the cosmos, where we might someday colonize distant worlds. This is a goal of dubious worth, but it’s one that Hehir’s docuseries champions with a chin-held-high sort of confidence. At the same time, it also has SpaceX founder Elon Musk address the main criticism of the Inspiration4 flight, and similar ones recently spearheaded by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos—namely, that these are joy-ride stunts designed to feed the egos of billionaires.
“I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth. Like, 99 percent-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth,” says Musk in one of his few obligatory on-screen appearances. “But I think maybe something like 1 percent, or less than 1 percent, could be applied to extending life beyond Earth.” His motivation is colonizing Mars, and the “exciting, inspiring future” of multi-planetary habitation. After all, he proclaims, “If life is just about problems, what’s the point of living?” In this context, Inspiration4 isn’t just an expensive lark; it’s the next big pioneering phase in mankind’s evolution, and thus deserving of the private investment required to make its Jetsons-style dreams a reality.
Musk’s brief comments aside, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space does very little to take a critical look at this enterprise. At least in its initial pair of installments, the docuseries plays like a PR product, casting everything in glowing terms, including its portraits of the mission’s four astronauts. That group is led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire whose history of entrepreneurship, risk-taking and fighter jet-piloting made him the ideal driving force behind Inspiration4. Isaacman is an amiable and eloquent guy whose every comment is tailor-made to hit on a particular talking point and, as he explains, a guiding motivation behind his SpaceX relationship was an initiative he developed with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to raise $200 million for cancer research. Putting his money where his mouth is, he’s already given his own, separate $100 million donation to the organization.
St. Jude also provided Inspiration4 with two of its passengers: Hayley Arceneaux, a pediatric cancer survivor and current St. Jude physician’s assistant, and Christopher Sembroski, who won his ride by entering into a raffle promoted by SpaceX’s Super Bowl commercial. The fourth crew member is Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old entrepreneur (who’d previously trained for space flight) who earned her spot through a viral-video competition. Together, as Isaacman explains, they represent the “four pillars” of the Inspiration4 mission: Leadership (Isaacman), Hope (Arceneaux), Generosity (Sembroski), and Prosperity (Proctor). This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release. And though all four of these individuals seem genuinely thrilled about their opportunity, the docuseries’ vignettes on their backstories are as cornily handled as the scenes in which they announce to friends (in person, and via Zoom) that they’re going to space—moments that awkwardly strain for astonishment and euphoria.
“This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release.”
One can imagine Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space’s more timely later episodes supplying greater suspense. Yet in its early going—which involves repeatedly underlining SpaceX’s connection to the history and ethos of the American space program—the entire affair mostly comes across as prepackaged corporate publicity. Some authentic emotion does occasionally sneak in, as with a brief snapshot of Sembroski’s wife breaking down in nervous tears while visiting SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral HQ to watch the Crew-2 flight take off in April 2021. Yet even the show’s discussion about the dangers of space travel—replete with recaps of the 1986 and 2003 space shuttle disasters—seem less interested in grappling with the cost/benefit of these missions than in raising the proceedings’ suspenseful dramatic stakes.
Those hazards are, of course, real, and they’ll certainly be front-and-center as Inspiration4 makes its way from the planning stages to the launchpad. The notion that Netflix viewers will get a front-row seat for this journey—be it a triumph or a failure—remains an intriguing prospect. Yet one hopes that, as its subjects enter orbit, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space quiets down about its own importance, and lets its action speak for itself.
The new docuseries, chronicling the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4—the first all-civilian flight to orbit Earth—feels like “prepackaged corporate publicity.”
Nick Schager
Updated Sep. 07, 2021
John Kraus/Netflix
Any current review of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is inherently incomplete, since the five-part Netflix docuseries is aiming to debut in real time alongside the event it’s depicting: the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4, which will be the first all-civilian flight to orbit the Earth—a feat it’ll accomplish multiple times during its three-day journey, at speeds of 17,500 mph and at a height greater than that of the International Space Station. Consequently, the only episodes available to press at the moment are its first two prologue installments (premiering Sept. 6); chapters three and four will hit the streaming service on Sept. 13, and a feature-length finale—detailing the actual mission—is set to land in late September, shortly after the Inspiration4 touches back down on Earth.
Those concluding segments will no doubt deliver up-close-and-personal footage from inside the Inspiration4 Crew Dragon capsule that will house its four amateur astronauts, who will be launched into space via a previously used Falcon 9 rocket. In its maiden passages, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is basically a long-winded promotional video crafted to stoke excitement—and offer justifications—for the endeavor, which just about everyone here touts as a history-making project that will help us get closer to answering the most profound questions about existence and serve as the first step in mankind’s quest to become a multi-planetary species. It’s an aggressive sales pitch masquerading as a typical Netflix non-fiction venture, helmed by The Last Dance’s Jason Hehir with all the dewy-eyed melodrama, swelling music, and rousing headshots that a 45-minute episode can contain.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space insistently pushes its message from the get-go. According to Time’s chief science editor Jeffrey Kluger, Inspiration4 is “a hinge point in history, and will kick the doors open to space for the rest of us.” That’s because, by sending non-professional astronauts into space, the undertaking will pave the way for more commercial flights, as well as further the goal of reaching deeper into the cosmos, where we might someday colonize distant worlds. This is a goal of dubious worth, but it’s one that Hehir’s docuseries champions with a chin-held-high sort of confidence. At the same time, it also has SpaceX founder Elon Musk address the main criticism of the Inspiration4 flight, and similar ones recently spearheaded by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos—namely, that these are joy-ride stunts designed to feed the egos of billionaires.
“I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth. Like, 99 percent-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth,” says Musk in one of his few obligatory on-screen appearances. “But I think maybe something like 1 percent, or less than 1 percent, could be applied to extending life beyond Earth.” His motivation is colonizing Mars, and the “exciting, inspiring future” of multi-planetary habitation. After all, he proclaims, “If life is just about problems, what’s the point of living?” In this context, Inspiration4 isn’t just an expensive lark; it’s the next big pioneering phase in mankind’s evolution, and thus deserving of the private investment required to make its Jetsons-style dreams a reality.
Musk’s brief comments aside, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space does very little to take a critical look at this enterprise. At least in its initial pair of installments, the docuseries plays like a PR product, casting everything in glowing terms, including its portraits of the mission’s four astronauts. That group is led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire whose history of entrepreneurship, risk-taking and fighter jet-piloting made him the ideal driving force behind Inspiration4. Isaacman is an amiable and eloquent guy whose every comment is tailor-made to hit on a particular talking point and, as he explains, a guiding motivation behind his SpaceX relationship was an initiative he developed with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to raise $200 million for cancer research. Putting his money where his mouth is, he’s already given his own, separate $100 million donation to the organization.
St. Jude also provided Inspiration4 with two of its passengers: Hayley Arceneaux, a pediatric cancer survivor and current St. Jude physician’s assistant, and Christopher Sembroski, who won his ride by entering into a raffle promoted by SpaceX’s Super Bowl commercial. The fourth crew member is Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old entrepreneur (who’d previously trained for space flight) who earned her spot through a viral-video competition. Together, as Isaacman explains, they represent the “four pillars” of the Inspiration4 mission: Leadership (Isaacman), Hope (Arceneaux), Generosity (Sembroski), and Prosperity (Proctor). This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release. And though all four of these individuals seem genuinely thrilled about their opportunity, the docuseries’ vignettes on their backstories are as cornily handled as the scenes in which they announce to friends (in person, and via Zoom) that they’re going to space—moments that awkwardly strain for astonishment and euphoria.
“This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release.”
One can imagine Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space’s more timely later episodes supplying greater suspense. Yet in its early going—which involves repeatedly underlining SpaceX’s connection to the history and ethos of the American space program—the entire affair mostly comes across as prepackaged corporate publicity. Some authentic emotion does occasionally sneak in, as with a brief snapshot of Sembroski’s wife breaking down in nervous tears while visiting SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral HQ to watch the Crew-2 flight take off in April 2021. Yet even the show’s discussion about the dangers of space travel—replete with recaps of the 1986 and 2003 space shuttle disasters—seem less interested in grappling with the cost/benefit of these missions than in raising the proceedings’ suspenseful dramatic stakes.
Those hazards are, of course, real, and they’ll certainly be front-and-center as Inspiration4 makes its way from the planning stages to the launchpad. The notion that Netflix viewers will get a front-row seat for this journey—be it a triumph or a failure—remains an intriguing prospect. Yet one hopes that, as its subjects enter orbit, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space quiets down about its own importance, and lets its action speak for itself.
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