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Happy May 1st! How would you like to watch one of these 5 must-see space movies to celebrate Space Day.
According to Holiday Insights, Space Day was “originally started to get America’s youth interested in math and science, Space Day focuses upon creating interest and awareness of all kinds of topics and issues related to space. This holiday caught on quickly, and became wildly popular.”
And, National Moon Day on July 20th commemorates the day man first walked on the moon in 1969.
Table of Contents
5 Space Movies to Celebrate Space Day + Moon Day
#1. Apollo 13
Adaptation:
The movie is an adaptation of the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.
Starring:
Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris
Trivia:
Gary Sinise was invited by Ron Howard to read for any of the characters.
The tagline “Failure is not an option” was not taken from the historical transcripts.
The famous quote “Houston, we have a problem” was a misquote of “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here“.
#2. Contact
Adaptation:
The movie is an adaptation of the 1985 science fiction novel by Carl Sagan about extraterrestrial life.
Starring:
Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods
Trivia:
During the development of the movie, the production crew watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for inspiration.
#3. Hidden Figures
Adaptation:
The movie is LOOSELY based on the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race.
Starring:
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Kevin Costner
Trivia:
Oprah Winfrey was considered for a leading role.
Katherine was originally unaware that the East Side bathrooms were segregated, and used the unlabeled “whites-only” bathrooms for years before anyone complained.
Katherine had several days before the launch date to verify the IBM calculations.
Suggested Reading: 19 Movies to Prompt Discussions about Race and Equality
#4. Ian Fleming’s Moonraker
Adaptation:
The movie is an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s novel by the same name about James Bond’s investigation into the theft of a space shuttle.
Starring:
Roger Moore, Michael Lonsdale, and Lois Chiles
Trivia:
James Mason was originally cast as bad guy Hugo Drax until it was decided the movie would be an Anglo-French production requiring a French actor.
Director Lewis Gilbert stated on the DVD documentary that he received so much fan mail from small children saying “Why can’t Jaws be a goodie, not a baddie“, that as a result he was persuaded to gradually transform Jaws into Bond’s ally by the end of the film.
Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, and Kate Bush were offered the theme song before Shirley Bassey.
#5. Salyut 7 [English subtitles]
Adaptation:
The movie was heavily dependant upon the diaries of Viktor Savinykh, who flew as Flight Engineer on Soyuz T-4, Soyuz T-13 and Soyuz TM-5.
Starring:
Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevyanko
Trivia:
The names of the main protagonists have been changed.
Film consultants were cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Aleksandr Lazutkin and specialists from the SP Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (corporation).
The movie was awarded the 2018 “Golden Eagle” award for Best Film.
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How will you and your kids be celebrating Space Day?
I didn’t know there was a space day! Great list! I hope to watch Apollo 13 again!
We love watching space movies and related genres. We ‘ve seen Apollo 13 a few times and cannot get tired of it.
These are great movies! I can’t wait to binge on some of these this weekend! Saving this pin!
What a great lists of space movies, Apollo13 is one of the best space movie that I’ve watched. I let my kids watch these movies to learn more about the space.
I love this!!! Love a list of movies so I can tick it off mentally …xo great choices 😉
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I did not know there was a space day. When we travelled for the uk to florida we visited the space centre very cool
I haven’t watched any of these movies. Now that I have the list, I Will watch few of these movies.
have you seen all of these? I havent seen any of these yet. but, they look like great movies! will check them out on rotten tomatoes. :)Thanks for sharing…
I’ve seen all but #5 and i have #5 on my watch list thanks to good recommendations and reviews I’ve read.
Those are all wonderful movie selections to choose from. Will definitely check some of those out sometime.
I am always fascinated by Space and thanks for the ideas. I will check on these movies when I have time this weekend 🙂 – Knycx Journeying.
I love all of these movies. We’re big fans of Space history here so I wish this day had an opportunity to shine amidst all the other history happening now.
I’ve seen three out of the five already. All great movies! Can’t wait to see the others!
We’re doing a unit on space with the kids right now. I’ll have to bust out these movies for them. Very cool.
I’ve seen a few of these movies, but not all of them. I find movies like this are a great way to make learning fun when you’re younger. They’re tell a great story, and most of it is true.
I have only seen Apollo 13 and Contact. But I really enjoy space movies!! One of my favorite genres, so many to choose from.
Nice! These movies will go nicely with the kids current segment the kids are studying.
These are some great movies to see about space thank you for this list.
These are some Great space movies I love Hidden Figures is one of my favourite movies.