Netflix announces documentary on NASA and SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 mission

Today Netflix released the trailer of “Return To Space,” announcing a documentary on how NASA and SpaceX returned human spaceflight to the US after a nine-year hiatus.

Trailer and release date

The release of the two-minute trailer revealed the film would be coming to our screens on April 7 exclusively on Netflix. This combined with TIME’s docuseries on the Inpiration4 mission adds to the platform’s offering of an inside look at SpaceX.

Appearing in this short preview, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk discusses the risk of launching astronauts to orbit and beyond. Demo-2 astronaut Doug describes the “much greater vision” that Musk has. His company has returned regular crewed missions from US soil whilst developing Starship. A vehicle that will take humans to orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The documentary is sure to provide never seen before footage on how NASA and SpaceX collaborated to advance US spaceflight capabilities. During the trailer, we see peeks into SpaceX’s production facility in Hawthorne, California, the firing room at Kennedy Space Center, and some spectacular views from orbit.

Demo-2

The launch of NASA and SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission on May 30, 2020 marked a new era for American spaceflight. It had huge implications for NASA as the space agency no longer had to rely on their Russian counterparts to deliver American astronauts to the ISS on Soyuz rockets.

The mission was made possible after years of hard work. Six years earlier, the commerical crew initiative was announced with the selection of Boeing and SpaceX to deliver astronauts to the ISS.

Demo-2 was a brilliant success with a safe launch and splashdown of the two NASA astronauts, paving the way for future human spaceflight missions. Less than two years later, SpaceX has launched a further twelve astronauts to the ISS and four civilians on a three-day free flight.