Away follows the first crewed expedition to Mars, the Mars Joint Initiative. It features an international crew: a Chinese chemist, a world-leading British botanist with no previous experience in space, a Russian cosmonaut with the most experience in space, an Indian medical officer who is second in command, and American commander Emma Green. Emma's husband trained as an astronaut along with her, and might have commanded the mission but for a medical condition he cannot be part of the mission.
The three-year mission launches from the Moon; however, several crew members do not trust Emma's ability to command because of her response to a crisis situation at the very beginning of the mission.
The series is described as being "about hope, humanity and how ultimately, we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things."
Main Cast
- Hilary Swank as Emma Green, a NASA astronaut who is commander of the mission and ship Atlas. She is also the wife of Matt Logan and the mother of Lex.
- Josh Charles as Matt Logan, Emma's husband, Lex's father, and a NASA engineer who supports Emma's mission at NASA's mission control center in Houston. He was an astronaut, grounded due to having cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM).
- Vivian Wu as Lu Wang, a Chinese astronaut who is a chemist and who had an affair with CAPCOM Mei Chen. Lu is in a loveless marriage with her husband; they have a son together.
- Mark Ivanir as Misha Popov, Russian cosmonaut and the Atlas engineer. He is the world's most experienced space traveler, who sacrificed his relationship with his family to his career. He is estranged from his adult daughter because he was in space when his wife died.
- Ato Essandoh as Kwesi Weisberg-Abban, a Jewish British-Ghanaian botanist and rookie astronaut. He was born in Ghana and raised in England by adoptive parents, after his birth parents died.
- Ray Panthaki as Group Captain Ram Arya, the mission's Indian second-in-command pilot and a medical officer. He is estranged from his family.
- Talitha Bateman as Alexis "Lex" Logan, Emma and Matt's teenage daughter.
