Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Among The Stars’ On Disney+, A Docuseries About Astronaut Chris Cassidy And The Journey To His Last Space Mission

The six-part docuseries Among The Stars traces the journey veteran astronaut Chris Cassidy went on to return to the ISS after his last stint there in 2013. His aim was to be on a mission to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion instrument that’s designed to take data from stars and planets far beyond what humans have been able to measure in the past. But, as with everything related to space exploration, things don’t always go as planned.

AMONG THE STARS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of the earth, then the International Space Station. “INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, July 16, 2013”

The Gist: The idea that space flight and concepts like spacewalks are still extremely risky propositions can be seen spectacular footage of the spacewalk Cassidy and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano did in 2013. They had to abort their repair mission when moisture got into the helmet of Parmitano’s space suit and he almost drowned.

In 2018, Cassidy is slated to go up to the ISS for the third and final time on the AMS repair project. He is paired with Parmitano again, and the two of them training at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, where they are submerged in their spacesuits in a massive pool with mockups of the ISS inside; the idea is to replicate the environment found during a spacewalk.

But this is the period in between the end of the Space Shuttle program and SpaceX/Boeing’s private spaceflight program becoming stable enough to transport astronauts to the ISS, so NASA has to buy seats on Russian Soyuz launches in order to get their specialists up to the ISS. Parmitano and Drew Morgan, making his first space mission, are scheduled to go up ahead of Cassidy to start the repairs. But after a Soyuz launch had to abort, launches are pushed back outside of the AMS repair window, meaning that Cassidy will be on the ground and Morgan will be doing the delicate repairs with Parmitano.

The repairs are indeed delicate, which is brought out during a tense meeting between the mission team and the inventor of AMS, MIT professor Samuel Ting. Prof. Ting insists that any repairs that they haven’t covered must be cleared by him first, but the team thinks that will delay things outside the window where they can do the spacewalks. Ting is adamant, though; the AMS is his project, and he needs to be in the loop.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Among The Stars is a less schmaltzy version of the Netflix docuseries Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space. It definitely strikes and inspirational tone, but it does dip into the problems and issues mission projects face, which the series about the SpaceX civilian mission did not.

Our Take: Despite what could be an overly-cloying, jingoistic topic, Among The Stars is an engaging watch, mainly because director Ben Turner knows the characters that are driving the show’s drama, starting with Cassidy. He’s one of those quiet but intense people that have been the backbone of the space program for the past six-plus decades. You can just see in his eyes how much of a privilege he thinks going to space is and how much he wants to go back, not just for the experience but to help the AMS mission.

It helps that Turner has liberal access to spectacular footage from various missions, including the one in 2013 where Parmitano almost drowned. That fills in some areas that would otherwise be filled with boring footage from meetings and other talking head patter. Getting into the biography of Cassidy, as well as the origins of AMS, helps put the story into context. And we appreciated showing some of the tension that developed between the team and Ting; despite the reverence everyone on the mission has for the Nobel winner, they aren’t afraid to mix it up with him when they think his requests are going to jeopardize the mission.

What we’re expecting to see from the other episodes is more spectacular spacewalk footage and Cassidy’s quest to get up to the ISS, which he ended up returning to in 2020.

What Age Group Is This For?: Any kid who loves space travel will get a kick out of Among The Stars. The footage alone should keep kids 8 and up interested.

Parting Shot: The Soyuz with Morgan and Parmitano launches, and Cassidy watches it from his Houston home. As the footage of the rocket climbing into space plays, a moderately dejected Cassidy leaves the room.

Sleeper Star: Samuel Ting needs his own docuseries. He’s calmly looking at footage during the tense mission meeting, nibbling away at a handful of potato chips. That’s so cool it’s almost freezing.

Most Pilot-y Line: Speaking of potato chips, there’s a huge layout of chips and food at that meeting. Were they locked in there for 16 hours or something and needed supplies?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Among The Stars tries to keep viewers’ interest up with spectacular space walk footage and a structure that tells more of a character-driven story than other docuseries of this type do.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Among The Stars On Disney+