Embrace Your Inner Astronaut With These 16 Books, Movies for National Space Day

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American sent into space. He spent 15 minutes there as the sole occupant of Freedom 7, the impetus for dubbing the date National Space Day.

Here on Earth, the space program has inspired many artists who may never zip through the cosmos on a rocket to create their own faraway worlds on the page or screen. In honor of National Space Day, we polled the PCMag staff about some of their favorite space-themed books, movies, and TV shows. Settle in this weekend with their top picks.

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Novels

In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

When you read through the blurbs for In the Quick(Opens in a new window), you’ll see a lot of references to Jane Eyre and The Martian, two books that might seem alien to each other. But both books’ themes cohabitate on these pages and in the alternate world in which this story takes place. June is a 12-year-old genius who, on Earth, attends the astronaut training school named after her beloved deceased uncle. She makes it her mission to right a wrong caused by one of his fuel cells, a journey that takes her to the Pink Planet.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Potayto, potahto; let’s call the whole thing a space adventure. Astronaut Mark Watney becomes one of the first people to walk on Mars, only to have the achievement evaporate in a storm of space dust that leaves him alone on the planet. He is determined to use his engineering and agriculture skills to keep himself alive and to find his way back to Earth(Opens in a new window). 

Contact by Carl Sagan

Before we got lost in theories about whether or not Jodie Foster traveled through a wormhole during those 18 hours of static on her recording device, her character Dr. Ellie Arroway lived inside the pages of a novel by Carl Sagan(Opens in a new window). If you’ve only seen the movie, reading the book will give you a different perspective and a far different ending. 

Lady Astronaut Series (The Calculating Stars, The Fated Sky, The Relentless Moon) by Mary Robinette Kowal

A trio of books make up the Lady Astronaut Series(Opens in a new window), the first of which, The Calculating Stars(Opens in a new window), won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Hugo Award. The books are an alternate history of the United States in which a meteorite strikes Earth in 1952, pushing humans to colonize the moon and then Mars.  

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

In a research station on the planet Solaris, Kris Kelvin must confront his personal issues(Opens in a new window) over a past relationship while he is part of a crew of fellow scientists trying to work out whether the planet’s ocean may be sentient and why it’s manifesting strange occurrences.

To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Spaceflight really takes off at the turn of the next century, with the discovery of a way for people to survive in space. Ariadne O’Neill and her fellow explorers have traversed light years when Ariadne begins to think of Earth and to chronicle her experiences(Opens in a new window) for those left there. 

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora(Opens in a new window) is narrated by a generation starship’s AI. It’s been populated by humans for seven generations as they set out to colonize a distant planet. But what awaits them there is unexpected and causes unrest.    

Starsiders Trilogy (Jumping Off the Planet, Bouncing Off the Moon, Leaping to the Stars) by David Gerrold 

Thirteen-year-old Charles “Chigger” Dingillian takes a family vacation to the moon via space elevator. He and his brothers “divorce” their parents partway there but find that the moon is not as hospitable as they believed. This YA trilogy(Opens in a new window) follows their search for a new home. 

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Movies

Ad Astra (Hulu)

In Ad Astra, Brad Pitt plays an astronaut who goes to Mars in search of his missing father. It’s more than a personal journey, since the mission is also meant to solve whether a mysterious force that is affecting life on Earth has its roots in his father’s search for intelligent life. 

Contact (HBO Max)

This is how most people know Contact: Jodie Foster plays a SETI scientist who hopes to find proof of extraterrestrial life. Just as her program is about to be shut down, she hears what she believes is an alien signal—and gets to be the one to make first contact with whatever is sending it.  

Arrival (Apple TV+)

Alien arrivals don’t always go well in movies. So to head that off in Arrival, a linguist (Amy Adams, in a bravura performance) is recruited to try to understand some ET visitors before misunderstandings lead to war.

Interstellar (Paramount+)

When life on Earth starts becoming unsustainable in 2067, a group of scientists (including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain) revive a dormant NASA mission and travel through a wormhole looking for a habitable planet for humankind. The movie was lauded for its scientific accuracy(Opens in a new window), among other things.

The Martian (Rent on Prime Video)

Ridley Scott adapted the Andy Weir book above into a movie in which an astronaut played by Matt Damon manages to make watching his day-to-day fight for life as a lone survivor on Mars riveting to watch.  

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Shows

For All Mankind (Apple TV+)

This series is an alternate history in which the space race never ended, and Russia landed on the moon before the US. While circumstances are radically different, many key players remain the same, including Werner von Brauhn, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Sally Ride.

The Peripheral (Prime Video)

In The Peripheral, Chloë Grace Moretz plays a VR gamer who is propelled through time and space. The series is based on a William Gibson novel and comes from the creators of Westworld, so you can expect a multiverse, alternate timelines, and the exploration of how avatars determine who someone really is. 

The Expanse (Prime Video)

A small group of people unravels a conspiracy and tries to prevent it from turning an intergalactic cold war into the end of all existence. The Expanse has its own trajectory, as it went from a canceled Syfy series to being granted additional seasons to finish out its story arc on Prime Video.