Kyle Kovalchuk

Dr. Ben Morris

RC1000

February 13th, 2023

Rhetorical Analysis Peer Review Draft for Student Feedback

The documentary chosen for this rhetorical analysis is Return to Space. This documentary

includes many important people like Elon Musk and many other important astronauts. The

context of this documentary is that it is based on the SpaceX facilities and satellite locations

where they launch the rockets. Further context is that this documentary shows what is in the

minds of the geniuses who are behind SpaceX and space exploration. There are a couple

purposes of this documentary being created. One being that it is to inform you why we are so

inclined to space travel, but more importantly, this documentary is trying to persuade people to

support what they are doing. Elon talks about things such as another world war, and climate

change, and other factors that could ruin earth, and explains that space travel and trying to find

other liveable worlds is our only way to escape such tragedies. This documentary shows

individual steps that are taken and small tests. A little further in the documentary, it shows

failures that have happened including major setbacks, like people dying by spacecraft explosions

on launch, and the amount of money it costs to launch a rocket. In this essay, I will be analyzing

this documentary in full, and explain what Return to Space is all about.

Return to Space is directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai, who did a very good job

with the documentary, but the main narrators were Elon Musk and his crew. Elon Musk is a

celebrity billionaire with a net worth of over 174 billion dollars. Elon is the owner of a few

Major companies including, Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla, and also the president of his own

philanthropy charity. During the documentary, it explains that Jeff Bezos, who is the richest man
Kyle Kovalchuk

Dr. Ben Morris

RC1000

February 13th, 2023

in the world, is in big competition with Musk as they battle for NASA’s space support. It

describes Elon Musk as an egotistical billionaire who is only full of personal wealth and

achievements but quickly slides over to the people that know him who say that can’t be further

from the truth. I personally disagree a lot when it comes to Musk but you can tell his super

objective goals are the furthest thing from selfish. Last year, Musk gave around 2 billion dollars

of his Tesla stock to charity, and has many foundations that he started, including the SpaceX

foundation.

This documentary was aimed to touch the people not only of America, but the whole

world. They try to persuade everyone to believe in SpaceX because they feel that it will be the

only savior to humanity in the near or long future, so it must start now. I personally feel like

space travel is a great idea and I support about sixty percent of what it is doing. I feel like a lot of

the money that went towards SpaceX could have gone to bettering our earth’s conditions which

would slow the rate of major things, including climate change. Like I previously stated, it was

said that SpaceX and space travel is humanity's only remedy for extinction, which I ultimately

find to be true. There will be a time when earth no longer exists which means there will be a time

humans will not exist, but if we can find signs of other life or liveable conditions, it will save

humanity.

This documentary uses pathos in order to try and achieve a more persuasive feeling to the

viewer. An example of this would be that sad and slow music is playing a lot in order to catch the

attention of the viewer more. Also it shows a lot of the struggles this group of people had to go

through in order to achieve their goals. There is a little bit of egos used throughout this
Kyle Kovalchuk

Dr. Ben Morris

RC1000

February 13th, 2023

documentary. For example Elon Musk saying what he has done and what he is trying to do in the

future. The author uses strong ethos to appeal to the viewer as well. Everybody in America and

maybe even the world knows who Elon Musk is, by having Musk at the center of attention, the

reader will be automatically more inclined to watch it and pay attention.

Return to Space does a fantastic job in explaining to the viewer what SpaceX is all about.

Considering there is a lot of bias in the making of it, it is hard to understand the cons of it, but it

is a persuasive documentary so why wouldn't there be bias in it? It shows a lot of behind the

scenes clips that most semi-interested SpaceX viewers never knew about. It shows some of the

process that is happening behind the computers and doesn’t only focus on the astronauts, which I

found interesting. I knew there was a lot more than what is in front of you, but the extent of what

happens off the spaceship and how much impact they have is truly incredible. This documentary,

like most, uses interviews to capture the audience and to further explain something about

someone or an event.

The end of the documentary shows a successful trip with two people on board and

everyone celebrating. It ends with Musk feeling a sense of gratitude because he successfully

operated a space mission with people on board. Musk has poured millions and billions of his

own dollars into SpaceX, along with all his time, sweat and tears. I feel this documentary was a

great showing of the possibilities of space travel and what it can do for humanity in the future.

To conclude, this documentary used many strategies to convince the reader that space travel is

necessary and I feel it definitely accomplished that.

Kyle Kovalchuk

Dr. Ben Morris

RC1000

February 13th, 2023

WORKS CITED PAGE

Netflix - Watch TV Shows Online, Watch Movies Online

Coingape Staff, Who is Elon Musk? Updated December 19th, 2022 Who Is Elon Musk?

Discover Tesla Founder Investments (coingape.com)

Chris Isidore, Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year, Elon Musk

donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year (msn.com)