Lea Thompson's stirring performance as a girl who eventually has to fly a space shuttle after the only professional pilot on the board is badly injured is the making of this Disneyish teenage adventure.

The film's first third plods as four teens and a space-mad kid assemble for holiday 'training' to be astronauts as NASA's SpaceCamp.

Once aloft, the film gains momentum and emotional tug, though the tatty effects keep things on the ground.

The interior of the Space Shuttle Atlantis was filmed in the Atlantis simulator at the real SpaceCamp in Huntsville, Alabama.