Factual error: The shuttle re-entry being nose-down could never happen. You had to hit the atmosphere nose-up so the ceramic tiles took the heat.
Space Cowboys (2000)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, James Cromwell, Marcia Gay Harden, Courtney B. Vance
Team Dedalus finds that the Icon Russian satellite, built during the Cold War, actually hosts 6 nuclear warheads. If it loses contact with the homebase the internal computer thinks that a nuclear war has started and would launch the warheads on some USA city. The only way that they all can get safely back to earth is if Hawk (Tommy Lee Jones), who has a inoperable tumor and doomed to die in a 6 months timeframe, straps himself to the warheads and propels them into space and crashing himself to the Moon.
Elizabeth
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Not totally true, the nose and leading edge wing were RCC and could take 2300°F, just like the tiles on the underside.
Sara Holland: I have never met a kid who didn't dream of being an astronaut when he grew up.
Col. William 'Hawk' Hawkins: Did you ever meet a kid who didn't grow up?
Question: In the final scene where Hawk is on the moon, how did he land? The know in the film he says the moon's gravity will take him once halfway there, but how would he manoeuvre to land?