Ode To The Space Shuttle: NASA's Best Movies

Well, the days of the space shuttle are at an end. But you know what, we had a good run.

Truth be told, we had way more fun with the idea of space travel anyway. In 30 years, NASA boasts an impressive 200 orbits around the earth, but that number doesn't hold a candle to the amount of sci-fi mileage we've gotten through cinema.

Here are some of our favorite NASA movies. Let us know if we missed any.

Keep your chin up, NASA!

PHOTOS:

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Comments

[Andrew Marlowe Bergman]

01:56 PM on 08/14/2011

"Here are some of our favorite NASA movies."
Alien isn't a NASA movie, it's Weyland- Yutani, you know in the future when the government doesn't go to space anymore and we rely on the benevolence of corporations to safeguard our workers... wait.
Armageddon? Quick, name another movie with Ben Affleck and Michael Clarke Duncan: Daredevil.
Space Cowboys came closer to destroying the fond memories I had of Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones than Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batman Forever, respectively.
Gattaca is about someone who wants to go to space, but has to collect Jude Law's skin flakes to do it.
Contact is about SETI and unresolved issues with your parents, which puts it in line with the opening of Independence Day, but more on that later.
Transformers 3 may be the worst movie ever made (Batman & Robin is up there and also boasts a rocket).
Independence Day had little do do with NASA, apart from how they're racist elitists for not letting the best Marine pilot out there (Will Smith) fly a spaceship because he's black, and might be having a gay affair with one of his squadron buddies (Harry Connick, Jr.) and dating keeps-the-top-on-stripper(Vivica A. Fox).

[hippiesandwich]

05:36 PM on 08/03/2011

How about some of the incredible non-fiction films like "In the Shadow of the Moon" and "For All Mankind"? Bonus points for "Mars Attacks" though - the "they blew up Congress!!!" scene seems like wishful thinking these days.

[keysbreezin]

04:33 PM on 07/22/2011

The new Sarah Palin movie.

[NeverHadFaith]

04:31 PM on 07/22/2011

The Right Stuff, what a movie. Its the beginning of the history of NASA. Its the starting point of our space program. And its wicked cool.
Apollo 13, showed what NASA can do in the face of disaster. And a wickedly brilliant movie.
Contact. So much going on but it never slows down as a movie. Faith vs. Science. Science vs. Politics. Ambition vs. The-Greater-Good. Bigotry vs. Acceptance. Great film.
2001 A Space Odyssey. The shear genius of making this film in 1969 and still being one of the best space films EVER!!!

That's my top 4. Number 5 hasn't been made yet and until it does, I'm leaving it at 4.

[gregory57]

04:14 PM on 07/22/2011

Moon was a great movie, but it's more about bio-ethics than space.

[nelly55]

01:20 PM on 07/22/2011

Apollo 13. even though I've seen in many times, I still get tense at the end. I was 16 when it really happened and was shocked at how little the public knew at the time how close we came to losing those guys.

The book The Right Stuff was better than the movie. The movie shifted history around quite a bit.

[NeverHadFaith]

12:44 PM on 07/22/2011

Some are complaining about the list and I can see why, but I also think that most people didn't read or understand the heading. It says, 'NASA's best movies'. Wherein NASA (or a variation of a national space agency) plays some part in the film, hence no Star Wars. I hate it when people can't read an then complain about the wrong thing.

[DungBeetle]

12:24 PM on 07/22/2011

At the end of History Of The World Part I they advertised Jews In Space but it never came out.

[NeverHadFaith]

12:48 PM on 07/22/2011

I really wish that Mel Brooks had made that one. Its not too late.

[Mac1000]

12:49 PM on 07/22/2011

I know, I was disappointed.

[DungBeetle]

12:24 PM on 07/22/2011

Space Balls

[arrock]

12:01 PM on 07/22/2011

Alien...and its not even close

[ls1z28chris]

10:47 AM on 07/22/2011

Contact, even though the book was better. Moon is also an underrated flick.

[nelly55]

01:14 PM on 07/22/2011

the book was awesome........I had no idea how well Carl Sagan could write fiction.

the movie was good, but could have been much better

[NeverHadFaith]

04:23 PM on 07/22/2011

Please tell me how the movie could have been better.

[Coloradem]

10:13 AM on 07/22/2011

Alien. No contest.

[skybar]

08:43 AM on 07/22/2011

"Alien," hands down.

[cynicalmatt]

08:32 AM on 07/22/2011

Space Balls

[Jarrod38]

06:46 AM on 07/22/2011

Come on where is RocketMan at?