SpaceCamp

SpaceCamp (1986) is an American family adventure you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Harry Winer. A group of teenagers at a NASA summer program gets accidentally launched into real orbit during an engine test — nobody planned it, nobody on the ground can bring them back quickly.

Camp instructor Andie Bergstrom, played by Kate Capshaw, is aboard with them. So is Lea Thompson as a trainee pilot, and a very young Joaquin Phoenix — credited then as Leaf Phoenix — in one of his first screen roles. The crew has to figure out actual shuttle operations with no safety net and no simulation margin.

The film was shot months before the Challenger disaster and delayed almost a year before release. Watched now, it carries weight it wasn't meant to have. For anyone who grew up on NASA dreams, this is that film. Stream SpaceCamp (1986) online on iFILM.