‘Wild Wild Space’ Blasts Off Wednesday; Entertaining HBO Film Documents Visionaries Battling For Primacy Above Our Heads

deadline.com:

More than 10,000 satellites are currently spinning around the globe – and there would be even more had a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket not failed in its upper stage last week, preventing the proper deployment of a batch of Starlink satellites.

That anomalous incident notwithstanding, the number of satellites orbiting Earth, commercial and otherwise, is expected to quadruple in the coming years, a dramatic development explored in the new HBO documentary Wild Wild Space, directed by Oscar winner Ross Kauffman (Born into Brothels).

Originally, launching satellites was the preserve of governments, beginning with Sputnik 1 in October 1957. But as Wild Wild Space shows, it has become an increasingly commercialized venture, pursued by a fascinating array of visionary entrepreneurs – some eccentric, some perhaps delusional.

There’s Elon Musk, of course, CEO of SpaceX; but this is not another Elon Musk documentary. The rocketeers populating Wild Wild Space include Chris Kemp, co-founder/CEO of Astra Space; Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab; Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs; and Pete Worden, a retired U.S.