Off Earth

On July 20th 2021, Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and space company Blue Origin reached an unprecedented milestone. He was on the first ever sub-orbital commercial flight to reach the edge of Space at an altitude of 107km. This pioneering flight lasted just 10 minutes, with a float in zero gravity for 4 of those minutes. His flight, and that of Richard Branson just days apart have become the dawn of a new era of space travel. This has just been the beginning of the latest race to space – but this is just the tip of the iceberg of a new economic wave that will change our world as we know it.

Right now we are going through a complete revolution of space access and space travel. Today, commercial companies and private individuals are providing access to space and flying to space, while private companies are supplying payloads to the space station. It’s an absolute revolution in relatively cheap, and very frequent access to space. The new space concept is to open up space frontiers through entrepreneurial activity which we have already seen progress at an unprecedented level. Plus, as more and more countries work together, space tourism will open brand new opportunities to explore the planets and leave the Earth’s surface. The next step is inevitable – that humanity will be able to live off of Earth. Someday there will be a person who will be born in Space and not only that, another will wait for a flight to Earth in the way we dream of reaching Mars today.

In this stunning film from Space leaders Somadrome, we reveal the work being done worldwide to have brought us to this position. We explore the companies around the world using cutting-edge science to develop business in space, as we head towards a multi-planetary species. The huge reduction of launching costs – not least Elon Musk’s game-changing work to reuse rockets, and his spectacular side-by-side landings as of 2020; as well as the development of the nanosat technology is causing a radical shift in the space industry. This is the NewSpace revolution. The revolution will disrupt the aerospace industry, but also communications, the internet, tourism, the power industry, manufacturing and mining – and life as we know it. This is the story of the our future, this is Off Earth.

Featuring testimony and research from:

Boeing: We explore the new Boeings CST-100 Starliner, offering orbital flights to private customers.

Pioneer Astronautics: a private company developing devices to produce propellant from water and CO2 on Mars.

FOMS Inc: a team focused on the manufacturing of optical fiber in space using 3D printing machines. FOMS Inc recently became the first company to manufacture off Earth – key for humanity’s future in the stars.

Somadrome are the well-practiced team behind Space Colonies (3 x 52′ HD) and Life in Outer Space (2 x 52′ HD) – both airing on Discovery Science, Welt and France TV. Their earlier film Is Anybody Out There? (1 x 52′ HD) is one of the catalogue’s top performing single hour films.