SpaceX documentary by Vice - Sep 21

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Trailer:



https://twitter.com/davemosher/status/1306328986038030336

So about that mini doc... Here's the trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=QqAcMP… Looks like it's coming out Sept. 21 at 10 p.m ET on Vice TV.

[ShaunML09]

FYI - this is available now

https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/video/between-musk-and-mars/5f500fb3c83b9a3d80247a84

You can use a free "pass" to watch 30 min apparently (unclear if you can stack the 30 min free passes).  Documentary is about 44 min long. 

edit: You can stack free passes to watch the entire documentary. 

[Lars-J]

Is it worth watching?

[ShaunML09]

Is it worth watching?

If you have been following the Boca Chica threads - no.  Its basically a number of residents (mostly part time) complaining about the fact that SpaceX bought Boca Chica and claims they were forced/threatened and are unhappy about it.  There was some interesting “behind the scenes footage” but for the most part I learned nothing new. 

Maria Pointer was featured and had the most balanced approach. 

[RedLineTrain]

Any story has to have conflict in order to be interesting, so the documentary played up the conflict.  But it did interview the main local government actors, so at least a bit of opposing viewpoint and attitude was presented.  It would have been nice to make clear that SpaceX has already more than fulfilled its expectations regarding jobs.

Cheryl Stevens was the most prominently featured as the SpaceX antagonist.  But the documentary buried the lede in that apparently she has already sold to SpaceX.  She is trying to reverse the sale, which seems unlikely to be successful (but I do not know for sure).

The documentary didn't state whether Cheryl Stevens or Celia Garcia, the other main antagonist, were part-timers.  A secondary antagonist was Mary Bloomer, who is a Summer resident.

One aspect that the documentary glossed over was SpaceX's delay in coming to Boca Chica and the subsequent change in plans from building a launch site for F9/FH to building a manufacturing, testing, and launch site for SS/SH.  Maybe delving into that would have been too confusing or complicated, but the documentary could have been more current and consequential if it had done so.