Inspiration4: How Netflix and SpaceX are about to open up spaceflight

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission, scheduled to blast off on September 15, may change spaceflight forever.

The all-civilian mission is not only the first of its kind in history. It also marks a milestone for Musk’s company, which hopes to one day help humans live across the galaxy.

This is a huge, fairly sci-fi goal, but the trailblazing Inspiration4 crew could help the general public believe in it. And a Netflix documentary certainly doesn’t hurt.

Well, it’s more of a docuseries...

The Netflix series, called Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, will release in stages, according to Deadline:

• The first and second episodes will be released on September 6
• The third and fourth episodes will air on September 13
• The final episode will air after the launch, sometime at the end of the month

Richard B. Cooper, vice president of strategic communications and outreach for Space Foundation, tells Inverse he thinks the Netflix docuseries will bring the story to a new level of audience engagement. The streaming service has over 200 million subscribers worldwide. (Bridgerton is the service’s most-watched show ever, with over 80 million viewers.)

By comparison, NASA’s “Demo-2” mission was the agency’s most-watched online event ever, with a comparatively small 10.3 million viewers.

“You're taking the message and the story where people are consuming it most,” he says. “I think all of us have seen people bingeing shows on planes, or trains or at the park, or at home... you're taking the story to places that regular people are going all the time.”

Want to know more about the Netflix series, how NASA disappointed Musk, and the exciting civilian space service that could start in 2022? Read the full interview with Richard B. Cooper, only in MUSK READS+.

But the story doesn’t stop there

Beyond Netflix, the crew’s unique backgrounds will make them well-placed to tell their individual stories.

Sending people around the Earth is just the start. Cooper says the mission will educate the public on how the new space race is notably different from the last.

“It is changing all the previous rules that were held by generations before, that this is something that only the government or the military could do,” he says.

SpaceX already has an extensive list of missions planned that will help reinforce this idea even further.

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