User Reviews

Viewed at LAFF, Angeles Film Festival, June 2, 2010. "Space Tourists", is a Swiss documentary directed for HBO by Christian Frei on the recent trend to ultra high-end commercial tourism into space. The film takes us to the middle of nowhere in central Asia, to the decaying Russian Space complex at Baikanur, Kazakhstan, where launches up to the orbiting International Space Station, ISS, are staged. In 2004 an American woman of Persian heritage was the first female Space Tourist at Baikanur. Anushka Anisin, an Iranian-American engineer, grew up with the dream of going up into space from early childhood in Iran, and was accepted by the Russians as the first female space tourist. Says Anushka, "Even it were a one-way trip I would still do it and give up my life for the experience". She sees a need for the human race to expand into space (as a Backup File) if it is to survive, as conditions on earth become more and more threatening to the species. The details of Zero Gravity living in space are shown in graphic detail, including the intake of floating liquids and the use of the space toilet -- obvious, says she pointing to the familiar contraption, where one has to be strapped down to perform the function in question -- if it'number two. She is so enthralled by the experience that she wishes it would never end and is reluctant to return to earth, but meanwhile back down on earth scattered pieces of the launch rocket -- fairly valuable space junk -- are found, cut up, utilized as dinner utensils, or sold off for their rare metals content by the local people out there on the endless tundra. Hungarian-American software Billionaire Charles Simonyi is also in there, but only in a minor role tacked on toward the end. It mostly shows him bicycling around in the snow in the Star City training center near Moscow, while preparing for his first space shot, which took place later. Hopefully we'll see more of him if there is ever a Part II, as he went up not once, but twice, and learned to speak Russian into the bargain! In an informal interview two time Hungarian Spaceman, Charles Simonyi said: "Buzzmeg -- It was one helluva trip both times!

Oh, this was one of the best documentaries I've seen. Firstly, the subject (space travel/tourism) is itself so exotic and fascinating! Then the way the Kazakh wilderness where the space station is located has been filmed - there's a lot of romanticism there. The story of Ms. Ansari, the rich tourist is representative of mankind's passion and commitment to whatever. And when contrasted with the scavengers who collect the debris from the rockets that fall off the sky, the conundrums of mankind's development and future are so well brought out.

The sequencing, the music, the cinematography - nothing less than exceptional.