Launch date: 1986

Pilot: Kathryn Fairly (played by Lea Thompson) flies the shuttle after teacher and astronaut Andie Bergstrom (Kate Capshaw) is injured.

Shuttle mission: Four teenagers, a 12-year-old boy and their teacher are at SpaceCamp, touring the shuttle Atlantis when it is accidentally launched into space. But the shuttle isn't flight-ready, lacking oxygen and voice communications with NASA, and the young astronauts embark on a mission to retrieve enough stored oxygen from a space station to make it home.

Outcome: The kids learn to trust themselves and each other, working as a team to land safely on Earth. The mission is a success, but the movie was critically panned.