Goofs for
Space Cowboys (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The shuttle's port wing markings change from "United States" during reentry to the NASA "meatball" logo on landing.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in Frank's sunglasses when talking to Hawk by his biplane.
  
  
• Continuity: In front of the roller coaster, Jerry takes his glasses off. However, the next shot of the back of his head shows that he has his glasses on.
  
  

• Factual errors: Since the Earth has about one hundred times the mass of the moon, one would have to travel more than halfway there to be captured by the moon's gravitational field.
  
  
• Factual errors: When becoming aware the satellite has problems, it is at 1000 miles. It is supposed to be sent back to geostationary orbit (where it presumably came from) but that's more than 20,000 miles higher. That descent is inconsistent with the rate of orbital decay presented in the movie. Also, the Space Shuttle operates at orbits of at most a few hundred miles.
  
  
• Continuity: As we see the Deadalus touching down on the KSC runway, the hatch that was seen blown off a few scenes before is visible undamaged and closed.
  
  
• Factual errors: The X-2, as shown at the beginning of the movie, was a single-seat aircraft, whose forward cockpit area was designed into an escape-capsule system, as opposed to the ejector seat shown.
  
  
• Factual errors: No sound is audible in space, however most of the external "space shots" in this film have some sort of audible sound.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Hawk is having his blood drawn, the needle moves from his arm and it is apparent that there is a flexible hose running off the side of his arm.
  
  
• Plot holes: The brand-new space shuttle is named Daedalus, the same name that Corvin's team had in 1958. If Corvin demanded this naming along with the right to make the flight, we should have seen him do it; but if not, then we should see him gloating or Gerson complaining about the coincidence. Further, as there is no famous ship of exploration named Daedalus, this name contravenes standard naming policy.
  
  
• Plot holes: It takes considerably more delta-vee to soft-land on the moon from earth orbit than it takes to escape earth entirely and enter solar orbit. This could have been done by simply firing the rockets in a horizontal orientation and in the orbital plane. No piloting would be required after this point.
  
  
• Plot holes: The chances of even a highly skilled aircraft pilot manually navigating from earth orbit to a soft landing on the moon are negligible. The physics are entirely different, and extensive computer calculations are required.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: A geostationary equatorial orbit would be the worst choice among commonly used orbits for a weapons platform. The satellite always remains over one point on the Earth, and the weapon would have to travel at least 22,000 miles after firing, providing more time for it to be detected. A low polar orbit would provide a much shorter travel time for the weapon, would pass over all parts of the Earth's surface twice a day, and would also have been easier to reach from the USSR. Which is exactly why the Soviets, wanting to put a weapons platform *secretly* on a satellite, might choose one intended for a geostationary equatorial orbit rather than a low polar orbit.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: A nuclear weapon to be kept in a low polar orbit could be designed with only a small retrorocket and a heat shield, but since the satellite would pass near a particular target only twice a day, it might take many hours before it could be launched. Large rocket motors like an ICBM's, as depicted in the film, would be militarily sensible since targeting would be much more flexible and the weapon's travel time after launch would also be shorter. And with the weapon in a high orbit, as indicated in the film, large rockets would be required to reach the surface at all.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank Corvin is approaching the satellite, he closes the "shield" on his helmet that protects his eyes from being burned by the sun. In the next shot, it is open again.
  
  
• Factual errors: The interior shots of the orbiter show a ladder between the flight deck and mid-deck. During flight there is no ladder installed, as it would reduce useable space in the mid-deck and isn't necessary for moving between the decks in zero-G.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1958, young Hawk sings "Fly Me to the Moon" in a very Sinatra-esque fashion. Frank Sinatra didn't record his signature version of this song until 9 June 1964, with the Count Basie Orchestra.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Hawk launches the missile platform toward the moon, he aims straight for it. Due to the moon's orbit around the Earth, that would result in the moon shifting considerably in position before Hawk would ever have got there. In order to hit the moon, the platform would have to be aimed further along the moon's orbit.
  
  
• Factual errors: A shuttle landing without the computer is impossible, as the shuttle is a fly-by-wire design with no physical link between the control surfaces and the cabin controls. This is why the shuttle has 5 computers. At any rate, the shuttle is too aerodynamically unstable to be flown manually without computer assistance.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the beginning of the movie, young Hawk comments about parachuting from 112,000 feet (in 1958). The actual record is held by Joseph Kittinger, making his world-record high altitude parachute jump from 102,800 feet, accomplished on 16 August 1960.
  
  
• Continuity: When the shuttle is landing, you can clearly see the name "Columbia" on the side of the shuttle when the name of the shuttle is Daedalus. In a subsequent shot the name on the side of the shuttle then says Daedalus.
  
  
• Factual errors: In order to use the grabber on the CanadArm, the target satellite must have a specially designed target point. The Icon has this attachment point even though it was designed and launched a decade before the Space Shuttle ever flew.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the astronauts are capturing the satellite, one brushes his hand against the control joystick, but without any effect on the shuttle arm's position.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Bob Gerson gives Frank Corbin Hawk's medical file showing that Hawk has pancreatic cancer, the document that shows the diagnosis is an electrocardiogram (EKG). That device is used to measure the electrical activity of the heart (that's the squiggly lines with peaks and valleys you see as Frank looks over the document before zeroing in on the diagnosis); not a test for cancer. Such a diagnosis would never be put on an EKG for any reason.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the first space walk, Hawk is in free fall (i.e., "floating" in space) when he grabs a large lever and pulls it to open the hatch of the Soviet satellite. Unless he was attached to something massive when he did that, he would have rotated opposite the direction of the lever's rotation. Instead the lever moves but he doesn't. U.S. astronauts are equipped with special tools designed to account for the free fall environment. (The term "floating" is not strictly correct because it is not a fluid's buoyancy that permits astronauts to move freely in orbit. It is because they and the objects near them are constantly falling towards earth but their tangential speed is high enough to keep them in orbit.)
  
  
• Continuity: During the countdown before liftoff, Barbara Corvin has removed her suit jacket and is holding an umbrella; immediately after liftoff she has her jacket on, buttoned, and with her badge on the lapel.
  
  
• Continuity: Jerry desperately needs his glasses for everything, including reading. But on board of the shuttle, he does some fine tuning on a computer panel without his prescription (sun) glasses.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Frank is having his eyes tested during his medical he makes a mistake with the 5th line. He correctly says E, F L, E P T and P L E P but instead of saying F L F L E says F L 'E' L E.
  
  
• Factual errors: The space suit used for EVAs has dirt on the soles of the feet, but such a suit would not be worn anywhere except for the short distance from where the astronaut dons it to the hatch and then space - none of which would have had any appreciable amount of dirt with which to soil the soles.
  
  
• Factual errors: Any satellite in geostationary orbit would not drift to a low Earth orbit in any realistic amount of time. Even with the mass mentioned, the Ikon in a 1000 mile high orbit would probably stay up for centuries.
  
  
• Factual errors: When there's a short circuit on the shuttle's computer, the sparks from it fall down, despite the supposed lack of gravity in the shuttle.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A crew member is visible in the hatch of the Russian satellite, not wearing a space suit in the vacuum of space.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Hawk talks about meeting the love of his life when he was 17 when he tackled the fiberglass porta-potty she was in. He was a test pilot in 1958, but the fiberglass porta-potty came out in the 1970s.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: The shadow of a mic is visible on the back of one of the blue Nasa desks when Gene says "Amen reverend" (far left of the screen).
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Gerson tells Corvin that he lost by his own rules because Hawk has cancer and failed his physical; therefore, Gerson doesn't have to send the team up. A few minutes later Sara comments to Gerson that "even with the cancer, Hawk still passed his physical, so there really is no reason why he can't fly the mission, especially with back up." So did Hawk fail his physical or not?
  
  
• Factual errors: Almost immediately after clearing the launch tower the shuttle assembly rolls into an upside-down attitude, which decreases aerodynamic drag and places the shuttle in proper position for its mission. After Corbin announces "don't worry... our man is with them", the next scene shows the shuttle rolling to become bay-down, toward the Earth. On orbital insertion, the shuttle would already be in that position.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Considering micrometeoroids and dust particles in space, ICON looks remarkably factory fresh for being "a relic of the Cold War".
  
  
• Factual errors: During their training, the astronauts practice a simulator landing of the shuttle during what appears to be a very heavy thunderstorm. Since the shuttle orbiter would be greatly damaged by such an approach, NASA waves off any landing attempt if there is inclement weather anywhere within 30 miles of the landing location. It would be highly unlikely astronauts would even train for such a landing.
  
  
• Continuity: At the church where Tank is preaching the outdoor sign states it is an American Baptist Church. However, when he drops his notes and bends over to pick them up, offering envelopes for the United Methodist Church can be seen on the shelf behind the pulpit next to the hula dancer figurine.
  
  
• Factual errors: The countdown clock they show in the movie is digital. The actual one at the space center is the same one that's been there since its inception. It is a historical landmark. It uses bulbs and is an older style countdown clock. The one in the movie appears to be much newer in technology.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Corvin stabilizes the motion of the Russian satellite, all the debris spinning around it miraculously gets stabilized too.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The Public Affairs Office counts down the seconds to launch and says; "3, 2, 1, zero. Ignition!" and then pauses whilst we see the Shuttle's main engines building up thrust, then the Solid Rocket Boosters fire and the stack lifts off. In fact liftoff actually occurs at the zero mark. The main engines ignite a few seconds before zero so that they are at full thrust when the SRBs ignite at T-0 for liftoff.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Eugene Davis conducts a status poll, he reels off the various references for the flight controllers, but then he also gives a "Go" report himself for each one. What he should be doing is calling each one in turn, e.g. INCO, FIDO, and they then each tell him whether their systems are "Go" or "No-GO".
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank confronts Bob (James Cromwell) about "setting [him] up in Bob's office (while Bob's talking to the VP), the clock behind Bob's right shoulder has the second hand at 40" - it never moves during the whole exchange between them.
  
  
• Continuity: Both additional astronauts, Ethan as well as Roger, are unconscious during the landing. However, when these two are thrown out of the Space Shuttle using the rescue system they both clearly are awake and responding.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: Ethan is shown as having suited up and gone outside the shuttle by himself, with no one else aware he had done so. One person can not suit themselves up fully - there has to be at least one other person helping him (her) into the suit and checking everything. As everyone else was on the flight deck at the time, Ethan would not have been able to suit up and leave the ship.
  
  

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