Synopsis

A former NASA astronaut leaves the program to save his family's Texas farm, but he never abandons his dream of reaching space. When he secretly builds a rocket in his barn, his plans attract the attention of federal agencies determined to stop the launch. Facing financial pressure, legal obstacles, and public scrutiny, he must decide how far he is willing to go for an impossible-seeming dream.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was set in Texas, but production took place in and around Santa Fe and Alamogordo, New Mexico. White Sands appears in the opening credits.

• Screenwriters Michael and Mark Polish drew on their own father as a role model for Charles Farmer.

• The rocket was designed as a nearly full-scale replica of the Mercury-Atlas rocket used during America's early crewed space program.

• Farmer's spacesuit is modeled on the Mercury-era Navy Mark IV pressure suit worn by the original Mercury Seven astronauts.

• The line "Cleared for launch at zero hour nine a.m." references Elton John's song "Rocket Man."

• The closing credits include an appearance by Jay Leno. The studio audience shown in the sequence was reportedly the actual audience from that day's taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

• The film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 15, 2006, before its United States theatrical release on February 23, 2007.

• Its theatrical opening arrived three days after the 45th anniversary of John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission, the first American orbital spaceflight.

• The DVD release included the making-of featurette "How to Build a Rocket: The Making of The Astronaut Farmer," a conversation with NASA astronaut David Scott, and bloopers and outtakes.