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Space Camp is a 1986 movie based on a book by Patrick Bailey and Larry B Williams and inspired by the real-life U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The film starred Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson and Tate Donovan with a screenplay by WW Wicket and Casey T Mitchell.
Synopsis Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. In the movie, four teenagers and a twelve year old boy go to a NASA space camp, to spend three weeks of their summer training as astronauts and learning about the space program in general. There, they will meet a female instructor who is frustrated at the fact she still hasn't gotten a chance to be up there, despite this being her life's dream.
But things start to unravel when the 12 year old boy, Max, saves the life of a robot named Jinx, and, to return the favor, Jinx decides to send Max into space after listening to Max say that he wished he could fly to space in a moment of frustration.
So Jinx secretly enters NASA's computer systems on the night before the morning the teens and the instructor were to be on a real space shuttle for the first time, and fixes all the programming so that the shuttle will be launched.
That morning, they all head into the shuttle and after sitting there and studying the flight panels, the engines start turning on to their surprise, and although the NASA controllers tried to stop the shuttle, it was decided that in order to evade a catastrophe, the shuttle had to take off, sending the teenagers and their instructor into space without any previous warning.
After much manuevering from their part, the teenagers and the instructor are able to return to Earth, but not without facing major problems.
Characters and cast - Kevin Donaldson (played by Tate Donovan), who thought highly of himself and didn't really want to be there, except his father had bought him a Jeep for signing into the camp. Donaldson wasn't supposed to be in this group, but he was interested in getting to know Kathryn so he took another camper's tag and joined this group.
- Kathryn Fairly (Lea Thompson), had a goal of becoming a shuttle pilot and idolized the camp counseler Andie Bergstrom, an actual astronaut. Kathryn arrived at the camp piloting her own biplane.
- Rudy Tyler (Larry B. Scott), who was generally known as the clumsy one in the group and wanted to become the fourth Black man in space and have the first fast food franchise in space.
- Tish Ambrose (Kelly Preston), who saw the three weeks of camp was a way to be away from her parents. Trish was the girl who liked to dress in typical 1980s pop culture fashions.
- Max Graham (Joaquin Phoenix, credited as "Leaf Phoenix"), 12 year old boy who saved Jinxs robot life and had been to Junior Camp two years in a row. Max wanted a taste of life in the camp for older kids so he squeaked into that camp.
- Andie Bergstrom (Kate Capshaw), the female instructor who had dreamed of going to space since she was nine years old and was growing frustrated that her attempts to go up had failed so far.
- Zach Bergstrom (Tom Skerritt) was the camp director and Andie's husband.
- Jinx, the robot, Maxs friend.
U.S. SpaceCamp The real Space Camp which inspired the movie was founded in 1982 and is located at the U.S Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The purpose of the program is to use spaceflight and aviation to inspire nine- to eighteen-year-olds to study and become involved in fields such as math, science and technology. Its four- to six-day programs expose the participant to training devices that the historic Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts experienced such as the Multi-Axis trainer, the 5-Degrees of Freedom Chair, and the 1/6th Gravity Chair. They also experience a shuttle cockpit simulator and in some cases, fighter jet simulators.
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