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I will not bore you with too much information about Inspiration4 (you can read our past coverage of the mission here). But the mission and new documentaries arrive on the heels of the billionaire space summer, when both Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos take off into space (or almost into space). Inspiration4 includes its own billionaire Jared Isaacman, whose nervousness makes him a less charismatic person to see on screen, but whose more restrained ego and lower profile mean he’s a much easier person to watch than Branson or Bezos.
After 90 minutes, Isaacman founder and SpaceX founder Elon Musk were asked only once to respond to the reaction Branson and Bezos faced this summer and the question of why the public should be interested in space when the world seems to be falling apart. Musk tells us that thinking about the future of humanity beyond Earth is exciting; and Isaacman says one of the reasons he partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and set up a mission fundraising department was to compensate for that privilege and do something good. These are not bad answers, but there are no follow-up actions that bring us closer to the consciousness of these two very rich and influential figures. Their motivations are kept simple and for the first two episodes we have no idea who they are and why space is where their money goes.
Where documentaries become captivating is our performance for the crew: Hailey Arseno, Sian Proctor and Christopher Sembroski. Arceneaux’s story is particularly tense and touching as she tells of her battle with osteosarcoma as a child, but it is also a truly wonderful story of resilience and, of course, hope. Her youth and energy (she is 29) are a bit contagious. Arceneaux is an absolute beginner when it comes to knowing something about space – one of her first questions when accepting her ticket to Inspiration4 was whether she would be able to go to the moon. “Apparently we haven’t been there in decades,” she says, laughing in shame.
Here it becomes easier to root for Inspiration4. Arceneaux and Sembroski are like the rest of us who never, ever had any plans to go into space and never imagined we would have a chance. Proctor’s story and her dual passions for aviation and space mean that she has always waited for such a moment. These are people who in past epochs would never have had a great opportunity to go into space – and who now find themselves in the abyss of something literally out of this world.
That doesn’t mean Countdown is true by telling us that the mission will change the future of space as we know it – for at least one or two generations space travel will continue to be under the control of larger and richer powers and ordinary people will not be given opportunities. so, except in exceptional circumstances. But the mission gives us an idea of what we can strive for.
Correction: An earlier version of this story distorted Haley’s age. She is 29, not 19.
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