Five Family Themed Space Exploration Movies
You may have watched the incredible Artemis II mission during April 1st - 10th 2026; the mission that took humankind the furthest away from our planet, flying around the moon analysing it before returning safely home.
Perhaps you now have a budding astronaut and want to encourage their enthusiasm and passion by introducing them to some family friendly movies to watch about space and space exploration.
I remember watching this film as a kid and it made me want to be an astronaut so bad! It's a fun adventure about a group of teenagers who are attending a space camp and are accidentally launched into space (Derek knows this all too well), and it’s the ability to work together that saves the day.
Based on the real story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson as they face racial and gender discrimination during the 1960s NASA Space Programme. It is an important story that explains how important these women were and their work allowed today’s missions to be as successful as they are. If you watch anything after watching the Artemis Missions, watch this movie.
In true Pixar fashion, Wall-E is a feel-good movie that pulls on those heartstrings, from the sentient robot clearing up a destroyed planet Earth to falling in love with Eve, and bringing home humans on the spaceship Axiom. It’s one of my favourite Pixar movies.
An animated short rather than a full movie, “A Grand Day Out” is the first of the Wallace and Gromit stories, our intrepid heroes discover that there may be cheese on the Moon and build a rocket ship to collect some. It is hilarious and is great for a short film.
A dramatised story of the rescue of the crew of Apollo 13 who are almost stranded due to internal damage during their space flight, it shows the resilience and determination of mankind and how amazing physics is!
Special Mentions:
- Flight of the Navigator (1986)
- October Sky (1999)
- Galaxy Quest (1999)
- Project: Hail Mary (2026)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Star Trek (all of them)
- Contact (1997)
- Shaun the Sheep Farmageddon (2019)
- Muppets from Space (1999)
- Titan A.E. (2000)
Why not check out our Space collection?
