“ORPHANS OF APOLLO” is the award winning documentary that has been called the “greatest space story never told.” The film  tells the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt, ‘orphaned’ by President Nixon’s decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This band of brothers took matters into their own hands, and commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station, behind the backs of NASA and the US government. The rebellious, yet pioneering efforts has been credited with launching the new commercial Space Revolution. This is the remarkable untold story of the greatest secret in the new space race.

This dramatic tale chronicles the adventure of the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. ‘MirCorp’, the entrepreneurial company ’s vision to transform the Russian space station into an outpost for what was intended to be the first phase of a trillion dollar business. The project was to include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space ‘hotel’, and a research facility. MirCorp was the ultimate start-up company, and unlike anything the universe had ever seen.

Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private jet, fly to Russia, negotiate one of the most remarkable business deals of the final frontier. Follow this diverse group as they pioneer their way through this new business of space. Listen to the management team as they struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology, and engage in the ultimate slugfest with the most powerful governments and bureaucrats.

“ORPHANS OF APOLLO” is an intimate and compelling epic which eloquently communicates the real origins of the private commercial new space revolution. Now for the first, and possibly the last, time, “ORPHANS OF APOLLO” combines archival material from original NASA film footage, Russian archival footage, personal footage, IMAX footage, with interviews and or footage with key players including Tom Clancy, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Rick Tumlinson, Walt Anderson, Gus Gardellini, Jeff Manber, and others.

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

Quotes

“…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,” Out of the Cradle: Movie Review.

“A fascinating account of how a small group of American space entrepreneurs challenged the government…”Dr. Roger Launius, National Air and Space MuseumWashington 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

First time documentary filmmaker Michael Potter, who is one degree of separation from many of the key players in this remarkable and historic epic, is an expert on international technology and business. Potter has published extensively on technology policy issues. He worked together with key figure 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.

Free Radical Productions is a privately held production company headed by Michael Potter.  Potter is Executive Producer of the upcoming film, “The University” The production documenting the Singularity University an its goal of inspiring students to positively impact 1 billion people in the next decade. Free Radical Productions + 1 (310) 990-8803

Followed By a Directors Question & Answer
Keynote Speaker Astronaut & Test Pilot Brian Binnie

A Special Benefit for the Manna Energy Foundation’s
“Geeks Without Frontiers”

Sponsored by Time Share Relief

Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at orphansofapollo.com/warner-grand

Michael Potter returned to The Space Show for updates regarding his excellent documentary film, “Orphans of Apollo.” You can learn more about the film and purchase your copy of it which I recommend by visiting www.orphansofapollo.com. Michael told us the story of a group of rebel entrepreneurs who almost bought the Russian Mir Space Station to use it for commercial purposes. Its an inspiring and exciting story with lessons to be learned that are playing a role in guiding today’s space entrepreneurs. During the show, one of the business participants in the Mir purchase featured in the film, Gus Gardellini, called in and added stories and detail to enhance the story told in this excellent documentary film. Gus also told us about his book on the subject being written and asked for feedback and possible NASA/Mir information so if you have such information, please send your note to themirbook@gmail.com. One of the important things driven home by Michael Potter during this show and in the film was the leadership required for this project. He also talked about the importance of the Band of Brothers management style. We also talked about national security issues because the Mir entrepreneurs wanted to use 1950′s technology including the electrodynamics tether. You will certainly want to hear what he had to say about this subject and export control. As this show unfolds, you will hear why this story is still relevant and important today and why many say that this story is the greatest space story never told. I urge you to see this film or order it from the above website.

LIsten to the show

A behind-the-scenes documentary on the unsuccessful effort to turn Russia’s Mir space station into a money-making operation serves as a cautionary tale for the private sector’s present-day space ambitions.

– Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log, MSNBC

To many in the entrepreneurial NewSpace community, Walt Anderson is something of a folk hero. A self-made multimillionaire who built his fortune in the telecom industry, he invested much of that wealth in a variety of space ventures in the 1990s, from Rotary Rocket to LunaCorp. His highest-profile venture, though, was an audacious plan to take over the Russian space station Mir — which was being abandoned by the Russian space agency so it could focus on the International Space Station — and turn it into a commercial outpost in orbit.

–Jeff Foust, The Space Review

Potter’s film is at its finest as it recounts the negotiations that with Russian space officials over commercial use of a station built by Soviet socialists. In addition to recollections from Gardellini, Tumlinson, Manber and others, there is rare video clips shot during trips to Moscow and negotiating sessions. It’s a nice behind-the-curtain look into how international deals get done. Potter does a good job of getting you caught up in the excitement of the quest.

–Douglas Messier, Parabolic Arc

Captivating both visually and intellectually, Orphans of Apollo presents an inside look at the challenge of conquering space from outside the context of a governmental space agency. It shows that political and financial influences can reach far beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, but that imagination and determination are as powerful as any rocket fuel.

– Janet D. Stemwedel, Adventures in Ethics and Science

The movie takes us on a rollercoaster ride through this attempt at space commercialization. I knew many of the people in the movie during that time. I remember being amused by what they were trying and amazed they got so far.

–Karen Shea, National Space Society

Orphans of Apollo is not another Battlestar Galactica special (although that would be outstanding), but a documentary contemplation of privatized space travel. It gathers the “anarcho-capitalists” who tried to lease and restore the ailing Mir space station prior to its eventual demise. Given that the movie itself bears the whiff of an outlandish vanity project, it achieves a rare affinity between subject and presentation.

–Jonathan Kiefer,Sacramento News Review

According to YouTube user Evi1D0c, there was a plan.
“This was a media that NASA creative, to show the [simulated] intentional deorbit (reentry to Earth) of the aging and abandonded: MIR Russian Space Station.”

“Orphans of Apollo” Screening Washington D.C. — ISU Fundraiser
An Exclusive Director’s Presentation of the Award Winning Film
Hosted by George Washington University, International Space University, Arthur C Clarke Foundation

Friday, February 27, 2009 5:00pm – 7:45pm
George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium
805 21st St. N.W
Washington, DC

$250 “Event Sponsor” (3 tickets Included)
$100 “Scholarship Booster” (2 tickets Included)
** Please pay in advance with PayPal to isu.nao.pp@isu.isunet.edu

$25 General Admission; $15 Student
RSVP michael.freeradical@gmail.com
Contact: Michael Potter 310-990-8803

5:00pm Doors Open
5:30pm Introductions & Film Followed by Director’s Q&A
6:30pm Closing Reception

“Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private Gulf Stream jet, fly to Russia and negotiate one of the most remarkable business deals of the final frontier. “

Supporting Institutions
American Astronautical Society
Space Frontier Foundation
ISU-USA Alumni Association
Society of Satellite Professionals International
National Space Society
Women In Aerospace

All gifts to the International Space University are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. A non-deductible cost of $15 per person must be accounted for in reporting this philanthropic gift for those attending the reception. Donations benefit ISU’s Arthur C. Clarke Fellowship Endowment and General Scholarship Fund and the George Washington University Space Policy Institute Fund for ISU Scholarships.

The documentary film “Orphans of Apollo” is the greatest space story never told. The film tells the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt, ‘orphaned’ by President Nixon’s decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This band of brothers took matters into their own hands, and commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station, behind the backs of NASA and the US government. The rebellious, yet pioneering efforts launched the new commercial Space Revolution. This is the remarkable untold story of the greatest secret in the new space race.

This dramatic tale chronicles the adventure of the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. ‘MirCorp’, the entrepreneurial company, commandeered the Russian space station to be an outpost for what was intended to be the first phase of a trillion dollar business. The project was to include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space ‘hotel’, and a research facility. MirCorp was the ultimate start-up company, and unlike anything the universe had ever seen.

Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private Gulf Stream jet, fly to Russia, negotiate one of the most remarkable business deal of the final frontier. Follow this diverse group as they pioneer their way through this new business of space. Listen to the management team as they struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology, and engage in the ultimate slugfest with the most powerful governments and bureaucrats.

Can these dreamers replace the age old traditionally held approach to spaceflight with their radically new vision of individuals and private enterprise developing space for all of mankind? Can they go where no man has gone before?

As they venture into space to make billions, they also go having deep convictions, vision and idealism to save Earth, and live the dreams they were promised as children through the great achievements of the Apollo missions that held the world captive. They dream of resources captured in space and brought back to Earth having the potential to solve our planet’s energy problems. They dream of colonies on the Moon, and maybe one day even Mars. They dream, as any businessman with boyhood dreams of the endless possibilities that only the infinite imagination of space can make true.

Their story is the story of dreamers everywhere who know no bounds to their imagination, whether their feet are firmly planted here on earth or their hearts and minds are soaring through the infinite expanse of outer space.

Michael Potter, Director and Executive Producer

Becky Neiman, co-Director, Producer
Todd Jones, Producer, Editor
Kevin Foxe, Co-Producer
Keith Eddington, Co-Producer
Cathy Arreguin, Associate Producer
Evan Seplow, Graphics and Animation

First time documentary filmmaker Michael Potter, who is one degree of separation from most of the key players in this remarkable and historic epic, is an expert on international technology and business. Potter has published extensively on technology policy issues. He worked together with key figure 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.

Michael’s notes for his talk before the movie:

We have arrived at a remarkable moment in history.

Today 51 years ago (Russian Time) Sputnik entered Earth’s orbit…becoming the first Earth satellite sent by humanity.

The New Space Revolution, of entrepreneurs pushing the world into space, stands firmly on the achievements of the small satellite Sputnik. Sputnik itself was the size of a beach ball but it transformed the world far greater then the largest nuclear weapon. This one peaceful satellite captured the imagination of everyone around the world,

And almost as importantly, 4 Years ago tomorrow California time, the $10 Million dollar X-Prize was won by SpaceShipOne.

Mir is the perfect microcosm of the entire space debate.

Mir covers all the big issues–everything from international politics to low cost access to orbit.

When people see the A for Anarchy symbol on the Orphans of Apollo poster, they often become a bit cautious and a bit concerned about this “underground” film.

But what unites these people in the film with this audience here?

First of all, despite all of the challenges, and many of the later complications facing many of the key subjects in this adventure…. they really express truly American Values. The drive to do what they believe is right. Even if the government has not caught up with them.

The MirCorp was an effort to accomplish a goal — smaller, faster, cheaper, in a similar spirit to Clementine and other results-oriented projects.

What is my goal with the film?

It is to try to understand the lessons learned from this remarkable story

Basic questions. Should we have worked with Russians? Was it successful? How could we have done things better? Smarter?

To generate debate.

But most importantly this is a discussion about leadership.

The leadership of great countries, spacefaring countries.

The leadership of humanity.

The leadership of great organizations.

The leadership of a band of brothers.

And right here in this room, all of those who are trying to move humanity to a better place … you are my Band of Brothers and Sisters.