HBO to create six-part “scripted” series on Musk and SpaceX
Where NOT to get your facts about SpaceX’s history: HBO today announced that it is going to create a six-part “scripted” drama series describing the history of Elon Musk and SpaceX.
In terms of story, the small-screen narrative will follow Musk as he develops the first SpaceX rocket and launches it into orbit with a handpicked team of engineers on a remote island in the Pacific. His dream of humanity colonizing the universe takes one step closer to reality with the first (and successful) manned Falcon 9/Crew Dragon mission on May 30, 2020. The participating NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, have since returned to Earth from the International Space Station.
From my experience writing non-fiction screenplays for cable television when I was still in the movie business, I can guarantee that this drama will have very little connection to reality, and is more likely to get numerous basic facts wrong. It will thus accomplish nothing but to misinform anyone who watches it.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Where NOT to get your facts about SpaceX’s history: HBO today announced that it is going to create a six-part “scripted” drama series describing the history of Elon Musk and SpaceX.
In terms of story, the small-screen narrative will follow Musk as he develops the first SpaceX rocket and launches it into orbit with a handpicked team of engineers on a remote island in the Pacific. His dream of humanity colonizing the universe takes one step closer to reality with the first (and successful) manned Falcon 9/Crew Dragon mission on May 30, 2020. The participating NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, have since returned to Earth from the International Space Station.
From my experience writing non-fiction screenplays for cable television when I was still in the movie business, I can guarantee that this drama will have very little connection to reality, and is more likely to get numerous basic facts wrong. It will thus accomplish nothing but to misinform anyone who watches it.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Too bad. I know very little about Elon Musk but this seems to be a case where truth would be more interesting than fiction. Musk is another instance of the right person with the right passions, abilities and resources (and “luck”) at the right moment in history.
The child is father to the man so the whole nature/nurture thing in the development of genius interests me. I looked on YouTube to see if there were any biographies of Musk. Not much. One short video said that as a child he was a bullied introvert who loved to read. The best revenge is a life well lived.
I always imagine that the kids who tormented him in school in South Africa should be living in constant fear for their lives.
They tormented a guy who owns a company that can land an orbital class booster, basically where ever they want. Would not want to remind Musk in case he decides to land a booster on their house. (Yes I know, the range is limited, and whatnot, but still a funny thought).
Converesely if Musk ever did decide to get revenge, who is to say that his Roadster out by Mars orbit, has an actual dummy inside the space suit, not a body he needed to get rid of.
If they are going to make a fictional TV show about him, they may need some controversy.
Disney (National Geographic actually) is doing a series based on The Right Stuff. I’ve read the book and seen the 1980’s movie too many times to count, so I was really looking forward to this one. The first episode convinced me the folks behind it don’t understand the material. It’s also presented in a rather lack luster fashion. Wolfe’s work is hardly a sentimental tome, but he managed to present the era with a bit of passion. So no, I doubt HBO will understand what Musk is trying to do.
Hopefully one day someone will do an accurate , in-depth book or docu on Musk/SpaceX/Tesla but I doubt it will come from HBO.
I wonder how HBO will adopt the story to their standards, I suspect there will be some changes.
Perhaps Musk tells Jeff Bezos ” I don’t have to defeat you with my Dragon, I shall do it with my Falcon”.
Maybe he’ll force Gwynne Shotwell to walk naked down the halls in Hawthorne.
Or he’ll see a psychologist to deal with panic attacks while having his associates put “a hit” on Richard Branson.
Of course I meant ” how HBO will adapt the story”. Don’t know if anyone would want to adopt the Musk HBO will present.