Orphans of Apollo

Orphans of Apollo is a 2008 documentary film analyzing the embryonic private spaceflight movement of the turn of the millennium, through MirCorp's attempt to privatize and save the Mir space station.

Synopsis

Orphans of Apollo is a documentary film, covering the period in human spaceflight from the conclusion of NASA's Apollo Moon program to shortly after the Soviet Union's dissolution. A group of entrepreneurs, including Walt Anderson, Richard Branson, Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Manber, and Rick Tumlinson, grew up during the early Space Age. The sudden halt to rapid progress when that era closes then disappointed them — as the film's title indicates, they were "orphan[ed by] Apollo['s]" cancellation. When the Russian government decides that it no longer needs the soon-to-deorbit Mir space station, they hope to purchase the station with Walter Anderson's money and boost it to safety as a private space station.

However, the plan requires extensive cooperation. The Russian government must agree to sell the station to once-enemy foreigners. American government agencies must agree to license and perform a space mission that boosts the station to safety — thereby creating a non-governmental competitor to their services. With limited money, the entrepreneurs cannot coordinate all the players before time runs out and the space station deorbits.

Production

The film combines archival Russian film footage, archival NASA film footage, IMAX footage, and original interviews with major players in the project. It was produced by Michael Potter, co-directed by Potter and Becky Neiman, and edited by Todd Jones.

Reception

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution's space collections, an exclusive screening of Orphans of Apollo was shown in the National Air and Space Museum’s Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater.

The film also won the Space Frontier Foundation’s Vision of the Future award in 2008.

See also

• Black Sky: The Race For Space, 2005 documentary about the Ansari X Prize

References

• Foust, Jeff (July 28, 2008). "Preview: Orphans of Apollo". The Space Review.
• "Orphans of Anderson: Film Examines the Fall of Mir and a Tech Mogul". parabolic arc. March 16, 2009.
• "Past and future of 'New Space'". cosmiclog on msnbc. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011.

External links

• Orphans of Apollo at IMDb
• Video trailer on YouTube

• v
• t
• e

Space stations and habitats

• List of space stations
• List of commercial space stations

Current

• International Space Station (ISS)
• Tiangong space station (TSS)

Past

Russia / Soviet Union	Salyut Salyut 1 DOS-2† Salyut 2† ‡ Cosmos 557† Salyut 3‡ Salyut 4 Salyut 5‡ Salyut 6 Salyut 7 Mir
United States	OPS 0855° Skylab
China	Tiangong program Tiangong-1 Tiangong-2
Private	Genesis I° II°

Canceled

Individual projects	Aurora Station Bigelow Commercial Space Station Deep Space Habitat Excalibur Almaz Exploration Gateway Platform Galaxy Industrial Space Facility Manned Orbiting Laboratory Nautilus-X OPSEK Orbital Technologies Commercial Space Station Skylab II (FlexCraft) Skylab B Sundancer Tiangong-3
Incorporated into ISS	Space Station Freedom USOS Columbus MTFF Columbus (ISS module) Mir-2 ROS

In development

Russia	Russian Orbital Service Station
Private	Axiom Station Haven-1 Orbital Reef Starlab
International	Lunar Gateway

Proposed

• Bharatiya Antariksha Station
• Japanese Space Station Module (Mitsui)
• Lunar Orbital Station
• Voyager Station

Concepts

• Bernal sphere
• Bishop Ring
• McKendree cylinder
• O'Neill cylinder
• Rotating wheel
• Space habitat
• Stanford torus
• Wet workshop

Related

• List of films featuring space stations
• Space stations and habitats in fiction
• Mission to Mir (1997 documentary)
• Space Station 3D (2002 documentary)
• Orphans of Apollo (2008 documentary)
• Space Tourists (2009 documentary)
• A Beautiful Planet (2016 documentary)

Notes: † Never inhabited due to launch or on-orbit failure, ‡ Part of the Almaz military program, ° Never inhabited, lacks docking mechanism.