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When a Russian satellite orbiting the Earth starts to veer off course. It seems like the guidance system in the satellite is of American origin. It's important to try and fix it before it comes into the atmosphere. The NASA man, Bob Gerson tries to find out who designed it and discovers that it was designed by Frank Colvin, an Air Force pilot who 40 years ago was part of the team who was originally suppose to go to space but when NASA was formed and Gerson's influence they were dropped. Gerson asks Frank to help but Frank still holds a grudge. But after some prodding he agrees but only if he and his team can go there so he can fix it. Gerson reluctantly agrees so Frank recruits his former team members, Tank Sullica, Jerry O'Neill and Hawk Hawkins to join him. After some strenuous tests, they're cleared. And they go up with two other astronauts and check out the satellite and discover that they weren't told the whole truth.

Director: Clint Eastwood

New York Times Review — "Space Cowboys"

August 2000
"Space Cowboys" begins in 1958, with jaunty western guitar music on the soundtrack and black-and-white vistas of the big sky and empty land around Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert. The first scenes follow the adventures of a group of reckless young pilots who crash their expensive military plane, bicker and fight among themselves and lose the chance to be the first Americans in space to a chimpanzee named Mary Ann and a new civilian agency called NASA.
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Roger Ebert Review — "Space Cowboys"

August 2000
The guys who had the original right stuff get a second chance in "Space Cowboys," 42 years after their Air Force experimental flights in the X-2 rocket plane were replaced by orbiting monkeys and something called "astronauts." When NASA desperately needs expertise that only grizzled veteran Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) can offer, he issues an ultimatum: His original team goes into space with him, or else.
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Back in the Saddle / With Eastwood leading the old pros, "Space Cowboys" is the summer's best movie

August 2000
Some old guys just keep getting better. Clint Eastwood, for one.
He directs and stars in "Space Cowboys," a comedy adventure about a former team of fighter-pilot aces, now pushing 70, sent into space to repair a Russian satellite that is more decrepit than they are.
This is the stuff of geezer comedy, and throughout the middle section of the movie, it is a superior example of this rather worn-out genre. There's a lot more going on, however, with some real pros -- including Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner -- who know how to bring it off. As "Space Cowboys" progresses from comedy to adventure to fable about settling old grudges, Eastwood does something amazing. He not only sidesteps the trap of turning himself into an old fool, he reasserts himself as the movie icon audiences for decades have come to expect.
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Clint Eastwood Rages At 'Ageist' Hollywood

August 2000
WENN NEWS - Legendary action hero Clint Eastwood has slammed the Hollywood film industry - accusing it of age discrimination. The 70-year-old star has denounced Tinseltown's studios, claiming they are "faddist" and "copiers". Eastwood says, "You get a little older and they want you to play roles 20 years younger, which is ridiculous. They want you to play a 40-year-old guy. You don't want to play a 40-year-old guy any more. Hollywood is a very faddist community." Now that his new movie Space Cowboys (2000), about "four senior guys going into space", has proved a hit - taking $18.75 million at the American box office in its first weekend - Clint predicts there will "probably be some other movies about four senior guys going into space". He continues, "Hollywood aren't innovators, but copiers. Once in a while, an innovator comes along and writes a script and you go for it."