WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Nov 17, 2011) - In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Humanity in Space, an exclusive screening of the film "Orphans of Apollo" will show in the National Air and Space Museum's Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater on Friday, November 18 at 8:00pm.
ORPHANS OF APOLLO is an award winning documentary that has been called the "greatest space story never told." The film details the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt "orphaned" by then President Richard Nixon's decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This visionary band of brothers took matters into their own hands, commandeering the Russian Mir Space Station behind the backs of NASA and the US government. These rebellious yet pioneering efforts have been credited with launching the new commercial Space Revolution and may be the greatest secret in the new space race.
ORPHANS OF APOLLO chronicles the adventure of MirCorp and the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. MirCorp's vision was to transform the Russian space station into an outpost as the first phase of a trillion dollar business, which would include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space hotel, and a research facility. The film documents the band of rebels who set out to change the course of history in space by flying to Russia and negotiating one of the most remarkable business deals of the final frontier and pioneering their way through this new business of space, ultimately engaging in a slugfest with the world's most powerful governments and bureaucrats. MirCorp was an innovative start-up company and unlike anything the universe had ever seen. Free Radical Productions has made the documentary film ORPHANS OF APOLLO available on DVD or streaming at Amazon @ http://www.amazon.com/Orphans-Apollo-Tom-Clancy/dp/B002HJHGUO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321377559&sr=8-1.
For the first, and possibly the last time, ORPHANS OF APOLLO combines archival material from original NASA film footage, Russian archival footage, personal footage, and IMAX footage, with interviews from key players including Tom Clancy, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Rick Tumlinson, Walt Anderson, Gus Gardellini, and Jeff Manber among others.
ORPHANS OF APOLLO "... will become... an underground classic at entrepreneurial programs. It captures that feeling of events rushing ahead of you as you try to figure out how to make it work, a seductive feeling beloved by entrepreneurs, and when they start hitting their stride," said Out of the Cradle: Movie Review. "A fascinating account of how a small group of American space entrepreneurs challenged the government," said Dr. Roger Launius, National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C., and "a fast-moving chronicle of an action-packed, amazing true story," according to George Whitesides, Former Chief of Staff, NASA.
About Free Radical Productions
Free Radical Productions is a privately held production company lead by documentary filmmaker Michael Potter, who has one degree of separation from many of the key players in this remarkable and historic epic. Potter is an expert on international technology and business and has published extensively on technology policy issues. He worked with one of the main individuals in ORPHANS OF APOLLO, Walt Anderson, in creating a publicly traded pan-European telecommunications company. Potter previously worked on the 13-part WGBH Series, "War & Peace in the Nuclear Age." He is a graduate of the London School of Economics. Potter is Executive Producer of an upcoming film, "The University," which documents the Singularity University and its goal of inspiring students to positively impact one billion people in the next decade.