Film makers pass the history of cooperation between Russia and the United States (OSN)
At the beginning of 2022, the US space agency announced(NASA) about where and when the International Space Station (ISS) will end; The agency explained its intention to flood the station in the area called the “Spacecraft cemetery.” in the Pacific Ocean, in January 2031. And NASA published a tweet saying that “the space station has provided unique opportunities for research and results for more than 20 years,” adding that “the Biden-Harris administration has decided to extend the mission of the orbiting laboratory until 2030.” In return, the US government’s space agency intends to supplement space research by purchasing the services and flights of private space companies.
This news gives special significance to the documentary The Wonderful: Stories From the Space Station, which was released last year and which OSN has finally started broadcasting. But if we want to summarize the review of this documentary in one sentence, we can say that, unfortunately, there is not much surprising in it, and the stories contained in it, did not take place in International Space Station.
But the importance of the documentary lies in identifying a specific group of astronauts who lived on the International Space Station out of more than 200 personalities who visited the station. The dialogue with the astronauts focuses on their childhood memories and personal stories with their families, most notably the story of love, separation and longing between American astronaut Catherine Coleman, her husband and her son. However, the main weaknesses of this documentary may be the soundtracks and the music that often do not fit in with the moment and are distracting.
Hence, the name of the documentary seems somewhat misleading; It does not cover enough stories from within or about the International Space Station, and instead focuses on what is happening on Earth, and in the United States in particular; Where there are homes and families Most astronauts The people we meet at work. The film also recalls the events of September 11, 2001, and the fall of the World Trade Center in New York.
Here, director Claire Lewins returns to images taken from the space station of the plume of thick smoke rising into the atmosphere as a result of the collapse. One of the images, “the only American extraterrestrial at the moment of the attack”, is narrated by Frank Calbertson. He says that after he lost contact with the control room, whose crew had to move to a secret location, the Moscow control crews were providing support and comfort to the astronauts at the station during those trying times. “Also 94 Russians died in the attack on the Trade Center,” Frank reports.
The filmmakers go through the history of cooperation between Russia and the United States to create the space station, but the American point of view overshadows it. “We are former enemies who became crewmates on our way to a space station we built together,” says US astronaut Scott Kelly.
Lounes tried to choose astronauts of different nationalities, but most of the characters in her film are of course from the United States of America, which is justified by the fact that American astronauts topped the list of visitors to the International Space Station in terms of number. In the second place, there are the Russian cosmonauts who contributed significantly to the creation and construction of the International Space Station in 1998.
It can be said that for those interested in the history of spaceflight; The most important thing that this documentary stands for is historical events; The space shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003, which was bound for the International Space Station, killing all its crew members, in addition to the ballistic landing event of “Mission 6” astronauts, which took place in May of the same year. After the Columbia disaster, flights by spacecraft were suspended for examination and review, and it was decided that the “Mission 6” astronauts would return, according to the American Kenneth Powersox, by one of the Russian Soyuz vehicles, at least one of which is often docked with the International Space Station. , instead of returning on a shuttle.
Soyuz vehicles are considered “lifeboats” on the space station, and are used in emergency situations. It is also one of the safest manned spacecraft, and it is the most used vehicle in transporting astronauts and tourists into space, since the 1960s to today. It is a small vehicle whose capsule cannot accommodate more than three astronauts. Soyuz vehicles launched on board a Russian rocket of the same name, usually launched from Kazakhstan, dock with the space station automatically according to pre-prepared calculations.
The documentary, The Wonderful: Stories From the Space Station, doesn’t have what is expected of it, and viewers can get weary of focusing on personal stories and largely similar memories in each interview with its many characters. The music is poor and the scenes and images are not technically distinct. There is a passage on some historical events and important political decisions from the American point of view.