Nico’s dad traveled for work. A Spanish-American NASA astronaut, Michael López-Alegría became legendary for his lengthy missions to outer space. Meanwhile, his mom, Swiss astrophysicist and diplomacy and technology expert Daria Robinson, held the family together during Michael’s long absences. Back on Earth, the astronaut’s career takes a toll, and during Michael’s final orbit, the marriage dissolves, leaving Nico with a universe of unanswered questions.

Fifteen years later, on the eve of his father’s next space mission, Nico attempts to bridge the distance between them. With co-director ZZ, he documents intimate, heartrending conversations with his parents, weaving together past and present to explore the emotional and physical distances that shaped their family life—and the gravitational pull of family that endures across them. Diverging generational attitudes toward sexuality, climate change, and family—rooted in vastly different upbringings—coalesce into a redefined sense of love and home, and for Nico, a renewed sense of self.