Netflix has begun the countdown to a “re-launch” of one of NASA’s most well-known and suspenseful episodes in spaceflight history.
The streaming service has scheduled Sept. 5 as the debut of “Apollo 13: Survival,” a new documentary from the British production company Insight Film. Netflix released a trailer a month before the film’s on-demand premiere.
“Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring the astronauts safely home,” reads Netflix’s brief synopsis for the 96-minute program.
Launched in April 1970, Apollo 13 was planned to be the third mission to land humans on the moon. Instead, an in-flight emergency — an explosion that tore through the spacecraft’s service module, leaving it venting the mission’s limited supply of oxygen into space — changed the focus of the flight. The lunar module was no longer a lander, but a lifeboat needed to bring crew members James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert safely home.
“What unfolded over the next four days was a rescue mission like no other; a knife-edge, life-or-death drama, broadcast in real-time to the watching world,” read Insight Films’ summary of the film.
“Apollo 13: Survival” distinguishes itself from earlier retellings of the mission — including the 1995 Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks — by seamlessly integrating archival footage and audio with interviews conducted with the crew, their families and members of ground control. The documentary taps into the same source of previously unseen large-format film as the 2018 film “Apollo 11” and draws from the home movies captured by the Lovell family.
“Our approach immerses the audience in the unfolding drama of the crisis; from inside the spaceship, at mission control and within the families’ homes,” wrote the filmmakers. “What transpired was one of the great survival stories in human history. A triumph of ingenuity, teamwork and human resilience as the world watched. Waited. Held its collective breath.”
Directed by Peter Middleton, whose previous work includes “Notes on Blindness” about writer and theologian John M. Hull and “The Real Charlie Chaplin,” “Apollo 13: Survival” was edited by Otto Burnham (“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story”). James Marsh (“Man on Wire”) served as executive consultant.
The film had its world premiere in March at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (CPH:DOX) and its North American debut at the DC/DOX Film Festival playing at the National Archives in Washington in June.
Former NASA chief historian and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Roger Launius said “Apollo 13; Survival” is “by far the best documentary on Apollo 13 yet made.”
“We may think we know the story of Apollo 13, but this documentary offers so much more than seen before,” said Launius in a statement.
For Lovell, watching the archival footage and “hearing the perspectives of family and friends on the ground” was emotional.
“I am grateful the world now has this excellent documentary showing the raw emotions and triumph we felt back then,” he said. “My hope is our experience in space will continue to inspire new heights of exploration for many years to come.”
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