The International Space Station was launched by two NASA astronauts on a private rocket in May 2020. You can see the first trailer for the new documentary on the restoration of American access to space from U.S. soil here.
"Return to Space," a Netflix documentary coming on April 7, chronicles SpaceX's Demo-2 missionfor NASA, which launched astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a four-month trip to the International Space Station. They launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft (which they named Endeavour), marking the first time NASA astronauts ever launched into orbit on a commercial spacecraft.
In photos: SpaceX's historic Demo-2 test flight with astronauts
The documentary is directed by the Oscar-winning duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and chronicles the efforts of the founder of SpaceX and NASA to launch the first American crewed flight. For nine years, NASA was reliant on Russia's Soyuz to fly astronauts.
Musk says in the trailer that Earth is the cradle of humanity.
This is an intimate portrait of the engineers and astronauts chosen for the historic moment, and it is offered for rare access inside the first crewed mission launched from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
The company has launched three crewed flights for NASA and the first all-civilian flight to go to space with its private Inspiration4 mission.
The company will use its Crew Dragon and new Starship deep-space vehicle to launch three private orbital flights.
NASA picked two companies to fly astronauts on private space taxis in 2014, one of which was the company that was founded by Musk. The first uncrewed test flight of Boeing's Starliners did not reach the space station, but is expected to launch in May of this year.
Return to Space will premiere on April 7.
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