PRESS BACKGROUND “ORPHANS OF APOLLO”

The award winning documentary film "Orphans of Apollo" is the greatest space story never told. The film tells the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt, 'orphaned' by President Nixon’s decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This band of brothers took matters into their own hands, and commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station, behind the backs of NASA and the US government. The rebellious, yet pioneering efforts launched the new commercial Space Revolution. This is the remarkable untold story of the greatest secret in the new space race.

This dramatic tale chronicles the adventure of the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. 'MirCorp', the entrepreneurial company, commandeered the Russian space station to be an outpost for what was intended to be the first phase of a trillion dollar business. The project was to include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space 'hotel', and a research facility. MirCorp was the ultimate start-up company, and unlike anything the universe had ever seen.

Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private Gulf Stream jet, fly to Russia, negotiate one of the most remarkable business deal of the final frontier. Follow this diverse group as they pioneer their way through this new business of space. Listen to the management team as they struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology, and engage in the ultimate slugfest with the most powerful governments and bureaucrats.

Can these dreamers replace the age old traditionally held approach to spaceflight with their radically new vision of individuals and private enterprise developing space for all of mankind? Can they go where no man has gone before?

As they venture into space to make billions, they also go having deep convictions, vision and idealism to save Earth, and live the dreams they were promised as children through the great achievements of the Apollo missions that held the world captive. They dream of resources captured in space and brought back to Earth having the potential to solve our planet’s energy problems. They dream of colonies on the moon, and maybe one day even Mars. They dream, as any businessman with boyhood dreams of the endless possibilities that only the infinite imagination of space can make true.

Their story is the story of dreamers everywhere who know no bounds to their imagination, whether their feet are firmly planted here on earth or their hearts and minds are soaring through the infinite expanse of outer space.

Celebrating 50th Anniversary of Humanity in Space 

National Air & Space Museum IMAX Theater

Exclusive Screening of the Film “Orphans of Apollo”

November 17, 2011 (Washington D.C.)  In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution, an exclusive screening of the film" Orphans of Apollo" will show in the National Air and Space Museum’s Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater on Friday, November 18 at 8:00 pm.  

“ORPHANS OF APOLLO” is the award winning documentary that has been called the “greatest space story never told.” The film  tells the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt, 'orphaned' by President Nixon’s decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This band of brothers took matters into their own hands, and commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station, behind the backs of NASA and the US government. The rebellious, yet pioneering efforts has been credited with launching the new commercial Space Revolution. This is the remarkable untold story of the greatest secret in the new space race.

This dramatic tale chronicles the adventure of the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. 'MirCorp', the entrepreneurial company ’s vision to transform the Russian space station into an outpost for what was intended to be the first phase of a trillion dollar business. The project was to include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space 'hotel', and a research facility. MirCorp was the ultimate start-up company, and unlike anything the universe had ever seen. 

Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private jet, fly to Russia, negotiate one of the most remarkable business deals of the final frontier. Follow this diverse group as they pioneer their way through this new business of space. Listen to the management team as they struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology, and engage in the ultimate slugfest with the most powerful governments and bureaucrats.

“ORPHANS OF APOLLO” is an intimate and compelling epic which eloquently communicates the real origins of the private commercial new space revolution.  Now for the first, and possibly the last, time, “ORPHANS OF APOLLO” combines archival material from original NASA film footage, Russian archival footage, personal footage, IMAX footage, with interviews and or footage with key players including Tom Clancy, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Rick Tumlinson, Walt Anderson, Gus Gardellini, Jeff Manber, and others.

Free Radical Productions has made the documentary film, “ORPHANS OF APOLLO,” available on DVD or streaming at Amazon @ http://www.amazon.com/Orphans-Apollo-Tom-Clancy/dp/B002HJHGUO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321377559&sr=8-1

Quotes

"...will become...an underground classic at entrepreneurial programs. It captures that feeling of events rushing ahead of you as you try to figure out how to make it work, a seductive feeling beloved by entrepreneurs, and when they start hitting their stride," Out of the Cradle: Movie Review.

"A fascinating account of how a small group of American space entrepreneurs challenged the government..."Dr. Roger Launius, National Air and Space MuseumWashington D.C. , and “a fast moving chronicle of an action packed, amazing true story" according to George Whitesides, Former, Chief of Staff, NASA.

About Free Radical Productions

First time documentary filmmaker Michael Potter, who is one degree of separation from many of the key players in this remarkable and historic epic, is an expert on international technology and business. Potter has published extensively on technology policy issues. He worked together with key figure in "Orphans of Apollo" Walt Anderson in creating a publicly traded pan-European telecommunications company. Potter previously worked on the 13 part WGBH Series, "War & Peace in the Nuclear Age." He is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Documentary Film Orphans of Apollo & First Time Filmmaker Michael Potter

Awarded Vision of the Future Award

CRYSTAL CITY, Virginia October 15, 2008.  During the annual conference of the Space Frontier Foundation (commemorating the 39th Anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing) the new documentary film, Orphans of Apollo, directed by first-time filmmaker and producer, Michael Potter received the special Vision of the Future Award. The Space Frontier Foundation presents annual awards to people, companies and institutions that have, in the Foundation's view, the greatest contributions during the year to opening the space frontier.

The Vision of the Future Award was bestowed, after a private screening to members of the Space Frontier Foundation.  The film Orphans of Apollo, is the extraordinary true story of a rebel group of entrepreneurs who commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station.  The film documents the pioneering efforts of these bold men who fought to open space for all of humanity and launched the New Space Revolution.  Orphans of Apollo, chronicles the greatest space story never told!

Previous recipients of the Space Frontier Foundation’s Vision of the Future Award include:

Joss Whedon, For the Movie Serenity (based on the television series Firefly); the movie "Fantastic Four" for its depiction of a commercial space station, Space Channel Canada, for portraying space as accessible to everyone, and the IMAX Corporation for its production of L-5 City in Space. 

When asked about his reaction to being honored, Michael Potter, responded: “The film represents a substantial investment in the energy, countless hours, and the talent of a great many people.  But at the same time, it is humbling to be recognized for such an honor, when we know their are people in the new space movement who are bending metal, and doing everything they can to get us off this rock, we call Earth.”   Potter elaborated: “I am delighted to be honored with talented professionals such as Joss Whedon, and world famous filmmakers like IMAX.”  “I accept this award on behalf of the entire Apollo generation that was orphaned by the U.S. government.  Lets celebrate in space!”

After showing the film, Potter was approached in the hallway by an audience member who confessed, “over the last year I had been asking myself why I am putting so much energy into space activism.  I just wanted to thank you for your film which reminding me why I am so involved and so committed to the new space movement.”   According to Potter, “it is these heartfelt and passionate responses that continue to keep me engaged, and fuel me in my efforts to tell the greatest space story never told.”

The Orphans of Apollo team includes Director/Executive-Producer: Michael Potter, Co-Director Producer Becky Neiman, Producer/Editor, Todd Jones,  Co-Producer Kevin J. Foxe,  Co-Producer Keith Eddington, and Associate Producer Cathy Arreguin, Graphics and Animation by Evan Seplow.

The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible. Our goals include protecting the Earth's fragile biosphere and creating a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space. Our purpose is to unleash the power of free enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar System.

 www.orphansofapollo.com

FILM  REVIEWS

"...will become...an underground classic at entrepreneurial programs. It captures that feeling of events rushing ahead of you as you try to figure out how to make it work, a seductive feeling beloved by entrepreneurs, and when they start hitting their stride."

- Out of the Cradle: Movie Review -

"The film has endless funny maverick moments - the team teetered between insanity, audacity and sheer brilliance, and the fun lies in that truth is always far, far stranger than fiction. It has edge of your seat politics - the maverick entrepreneurs upset NASA by gaining a foothold in a space the wished to dominate. You find yourself caring about a piece of space junk. And the ending feels brutal." 

Wave PR


"If the MirCorp venture had survived, it could have
changed the space industry as we know it today and given us a private, commercial foothold in space. At times, while watching the film, I felt like I was watching a rock-and-roll rockumentary or a biopic of how corporate giants Apple or Hewlett Packard got their start in a garage."

Reviewed by Scott Sacknoff, Publisher
Quest: The History of Spaceflight

"Captivating both visually and intellectually, Orphans of Apollo presents an inside look at the challenge of conquering space from outside the context of a governmental space agency. It shows that political and financial influences can reach far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, but that imagination and determination are as powerful as any rocket fuel." 
Science Blogs


"It's not a techie story," said Potter. "Some people have described it as more like a story of a rock band getting on a plane. It's not really a space nerd story. It's more of a band-of-brothers kind of story." 
Daily Breeze


"Some people are calling this the ultimate start-up story, and other people are saying it's the greatest space story that's never been told," Potter said. "Even experts in space haven't heard this story and so I think that's what got me switched on and inspired to do it, because it was such an unbelievable story.
P.V. News

" Orphans of Apollo is not another Battlestar Galactica special (although that would be outstanding), but a documentary contemplation of privatized space travel. It gathers the “anarcho-capitalists” who tried to lease and restore the ailing Mir space station prior to its eventual demise. Given that the movie itself bears the whiff of an outlandish vanity project, it achieves a rare affinity between subject and presentation."

News Review

"To many in the entrepreneurial NewSpace community, Walt Anderson is something of a folk hero. A self-made multimillionaire who built his fortune in the telecom industry, he invested much of that wealth in a variety of space ventures in the 1990s, from Rotary Rocket to LunaCorp. His highest-profile venture, though, was an audacious plan to take over the Russian space station Mir—which was being abandoned by the Russian space agency so it could focus on the International Space Station—and turn it into a commercial outpost in orbit."
The Space Review

"The movie takes us on a rollercoaster ride through this attempt at space commercialization. I knew many of the people in the movie during that time. I remember being amused by what they were trying and amazed they got so far."
National Space Society

"Potter’s film is at its finest as it recounts the negotiations that with Russian space officials over commercial use of a station built by Soviet socialists. In addition to recollections from Gardellini, Tumlinson, Manber and others, there is rare video clips shot during trips to Moscow and negotiating sessions. It’s a nice behind-the-curtain look into how international deals get done. Potter does a good job of getting you caught up in the excitement of the quest."
ParabolicArc


Documentaries about failed efforts are sometimes not that relevant. Apollo's Orphans is different. It is the timely story of how close we came to bringing about a revolution in space activities almost a decade ago. For me, it was a great chance to see old friends, and not look back but forward to an even more exciting future for space exploration
Kentucky Space

"Orphans of Apollo," a movie that tells the story of the masterminds and millionaires behind MirCorp, has been making the film-festival circuit for months ...

"Thanks to Anderson's millions, MirCorp got their Russian "landlords" to send one more crew up to the space station in mid-2000 and keep the place running. But that was the venture's high point. The grand ambitions of Apollo's orphans ran up against a perfect storm of personality clashes, politics and economics."

(By the way, Potter had these comments about reports indicating that former astronaut and retired Marine Charles Bolden is likely to be nominated to head NASA: "Charles Bolden should be selected as NASA administrator because of his qualifications primarily as a battle-hardened warrior, not because of his outstanding record as astronaut. If Charlie ever forgets for a moment that he is locked into hand-to-hand combat with the goal of bringing humanity to the heavens, he will be crushed by bureaucracy and politics. Let's wish the man Godspeed, our future may depend on it.")

MSNBC

"There's a documentary called Orphans of Apollo that's stated this well," he [Richard Garriott] explained. "There's a generation of us, who are the tech leaders of today, who were universally inspired to go into science and technology because of the NASA Lunar Space Program. And the reason the movie is called Orphans of Apollo is because, in many ways, we feel orphaned by the fact that the space industry has not done a good job of capitalizing on that momentum of what many of us believed were the first steps into space, carrying the mission of human space flight farther and farther into deep space."

Reuters - The Big Money Geeks in Space

Review: Orphans of Apollo (DVD)

Ken Murphy / 4:47 am April 21st, 2009

We open with a launch of a Saturn V, forever an emblem of the Apollo program. Space activist Rick Tumlinson provides his view of why it ended, and author Tom Clancy notes what we’ve foregone. A whole host of individuals in space business and activism were interviewed for this documentary, from James Muncy to Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria.

We’re introduced to the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia), which has been operating the Russian space program since the beginning, and we learn of the precarious position of the Mir space station subsequent to NASA’s practice runs for ISS in the 1990s. (which, admittedly, had left NASA a bit spooked about the aging Russian station)

Russia was still recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a small group of entrepreneurs shows up on the doorstep with a basket of cash. Their goal - commercialize the Russian space station and save a tremendous asset that’s already in orbit. Thus is bornMirCorp.

We get an inside view of what happened - the negotiations, the politics, and the power players. Not everyone in the USA believes that the business of America is business, and sometimes people will go to great ends to further their agenda, even if it means crushing opposition. Still, entrepreneurs are the value creators of society, and they’re always looking for opportunity.

There are plenty of research opportunities that were poorly served by the Shuttle architecture. It’s tough to get much science done when you can only get to the lab once every 3+ years, and you only have a couple of days at best to do your research. Private companies can’t afford to keep research scientists on staff when they’re not producing any research results, which is why most of the private sector efforts eventually disappeared after Challenger, and again highlights the risk of relying solely on a ‘National Space Transportation System’. There’s a great deal ofuntapped potential in microgravity research, we just need to get scientists up there regularly and frequently to sit at the lab bench day after day doing research.

So I certainly applauded efforts to ensure that we had not one, but two stations in orbit serving as a stepping stone to beyond. It’s interesting seeing the story from the perspective of this documentary, as the end-story played out during my year of studies at International Space University, and I still remember the death watch with my fellow students in the computer lab. The demise of Mir remains a tragedy of commercial efforts to open the high frontier, but it also sparked a legacy for the Orphans of Apollo that shapes the nature of efforts to open the high frontier by both citizens and their government. That’s where the documentary leaves off, highlighting some of the New Space efforts that have forever changed the idea of just who it is exactly that gets to go into space.

I won’t presume to speak on the merits of the case of U.S. vs. Walt Anderson. I recognize that I haven’t mentioned his name yet, and that’s by design. The only reason that this bit of history even exists is because a man who made his money in technology decided to roll the dice and take a chance with creating a whole new business that had never existed before (irrespective of NASA protestations to the contrary), throwing $7 million in cash on the table to close a deal. Walt let the beauty of “The Deal” seduce him, and he failed to adequately consider the geopolitical context. Probably, and rightly so, because once his company became responsible for the asset by virtue of its lease then it was no longer a geopolitical asset, it was a commercial asset operating under contract. Not everyone saw it that way, folks who conveniently happened to be in positions of government that allowed them to exercise control over the implementation of the business plan. Government authority also allows individuals to make decisions that destroy the lives of citizens and Mr. Anderson is currently in prison on tax charges. There is more information about this atwww.justiceforwalt.com.

The DVD also features an extended version of the film, as well as some featurettes of miscellaneous space tidbits like a McDonnell Douglas ad.

I’m sort of hoping that this will become a bit of an underground classic at entrepreneurial programs. It captures that feeling of events rushing ahead of you as you try to figure out how to make it work, a seductive feeling beloved by entrepreneurs, and when they start hitting their stride. It’s a shame that the road of private space efforts is littered with far more roadkill than successes, but the same has been true of most frontiers. Entrepreneurs, like cutting edge scientists, know that not every effort is going to pan out, but you can count on them being in there swinging until the end, and then recycling the lessons of failure into the even better efforts of tomorrow.

An important documentary about an important part of space history, I’m going with a strong L-4 rating on this one.