Simon Catling
Elon Musk's recent takeover of Twitter has sparked some strong opinions, to say the least.
How timely, then, that new Netflix documentary Return To Space is now airing, and painting the world's richest man in a favourable light.
That's the view of Twitter anyway, with users having come away from the documentary seeing Musk in a new light.
The space exploration documentary comes from Oscar-winning directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and follows Elon Musk and SpaceX engineers on their two-decade mission to send NASA astronauts back to the International Space Station and revolutionise space travel.
The documentary starts from launch system Falcon 1, which SpaceX began to manufacture in 2006, and covers right up to the Crew Dragon Demo-2, launched on 30 May 2020, with Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard.
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Musk in particular has drawn a strongly positive response from Twitter users.
"Having watched Return to Space documentary on @netflix, you can’t stop wonder that genius of @elonmusk
was born at least 50 years ahead of its time!! The conviction and passion with which he speaks about making humans multiplanetary species is just [fire]," one user wrote.
"Just seen ‘Return to Space’ on #Netflix & I have even more respect for @elonmusk," another added. "His emotions are clearly genuine and he literally put everything he had into what was widely considered impossible. Most would have retired – instead he set out to do the impossible, and is doing it."
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A third put: "Highly recommend watching Return To Space on Netflix, after watching it you realise what a modern day genius and just outright dude Elon Musk is!! #ElonMusk #SpaceX."
Musk has faced something of a backlash following news that he was set to acquire Twitter for the princely sum of $44 billion. Some have questioned why he is spending such money on the social media giant instead of making good on his promise to end world poverty.
Many others, meanwhile, are speculating what he might do with the platform. Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft and formerly the richest man in the world himself, has warned he could make Twitter worse.
Speaking at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal, Gates said: "He actually could make it worse."
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However, Gates then did go on to say: "That's not his track record.
"I mean his track record with Tesla and SpaceX is pretty mind-blowing at putting together a great team of engineers and taking the people who work in those fields in a less bold way and really showing them up.
"I kind of doubt that will happen this time, but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon."