Did You Know?

What was supposed to be a somewhat light hearted action/adventure movie turned into a marketing nightmare. SpaceCamp was scheduled to be released in early 1986 but on 28 January the real-life shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff, claiming the lives of seven American astronauts. After the Challenger disaster, the release was pushed back months. When it was finally sent to theaters, it grossed less than $10 million in the U.S. Eerily, the malfunction simulated in the film involved the solid rocket booster and was similar to the actual cause of the Challenger accident.

In the scene in which Jinx asks the NASA computer about launch possibilities (the second scene involving Jinx and the computer), as the computer monitor rapidly flashes data on the screen, a couple of hidden messages are included, but only for one or two frames each. On the display of the shuttle's main engine, the caption reads "Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) burns liquid hydrogen & liquid oxygen fuel (as if anyone didn't know that, I must say...)" The next frame features a message saying "Don't get down on the DSK thrust factor, man". And the following frame displays a message saying "Three SSME's are on the orbiter's aft end, which is driving (@27,000 Knm) me quite mental". (The messages are references to Martin Short's character "Ed Grimley", who was popular on Saturday Night Live at the time the film was being produced.)

Joaquin Phoenix's feature film debut. He is credited as Leaf Phoenix.

The footage of the Space Shuttle Orbiter landing is from Challenger touching down at the conclusion of STS-8. This was the first night landing of the Space Shuttle program.