Heres a movie that was truly a product of its time . . . that time being the 1980s. Spacecamp . . . the 1986 movie by that name, that is . . . represented a hybrid of two '80s phenomena. Spacecamp came out as the Shuttle era was ascendant. It also came out at a time when spacey sci-fi movies were big at the box office, an effect of the popularity of such movies that perhaps really started way back in 1977 with Star Wars, but which was revived with the 1982 Spielberg classic, E.T..
Spacecamp is about a group of kids at, yes, space camp, who get the opportunity to get on board an actual space shuttle. An accidental launch puts them in space, where they have to link up with a space station to survive, and somehow make it back to earth. An unlikely tale, to be sure, but one which represented many a young geeky kid's dreams of going into space, and showed the penchant for flights of fancy that were common in '80s movies.
The movie featured a robot named Jinx, aptly so named because it was responsible for the "accident" that put the space campers into orbit.
The movie was intended to be released in 1985, but was delayed to early 1986. It was then delayed even further when the Challenger tragedy occurred on January 28, 1986. After finally being released, it had mixed reviewed and was not a favorite of the box office. But I remember it as being representative of some of the particularly spacey trends of the '80s, both in terms of real life events, and of sci-fi.
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