Factual error: Although it's already been mentioned that the scene of the shuttle being stolen from the back of the 747 is impossible because the shuttle wouldn't be fueled while being transported, it should also be noted that even if the shuttle was fueled, it would still be just as impossible. During the getaway, the thieves ignited the shuttle's three main engines to get free of the 747 and escape. The thing is, the shuttle's main engines are fueled entirely by the large external tank the shuttle and the solid fuel boosters are attached to during liftoff, and once the tank is jettisoned, these engines cannot be used. The only engines the shuttle's internal fuel feeds are the reaction control thrusters and the Orbital Maneuvering System (which are the two smaller engines located in the bulges just above the main engines). Both the RCS thrusters and OMS engines are almost totally useless within the atmosphere, so even if the thieves managed to get the shuttle free of the 747, they could only get it as far as it would glide unpowered. In fact, they could probably get it further if it wasn't fueled. It should be noted that this is not a fictional, futuristic spacecraft. It's a bog standard shuttle, stolen from NASA, on the back of the modified 747 used by them to transport the orbiter from its landing site to Cape Canaveral.
Factual error: The space station rotates for pseudo-gravity, but everyone falls along the rotational axis towards the bottom of the screen instead of falling outward from the axis as they actually would. Admittedly, this would be difficult to film (Stanley Kubrick's astronaut jogging in a giant hamster-wheel in Space Odyssey - nuff respect), so I guess they just hoped the audience wouldn't know the difference. (01:29:40)
Factual error: Two pilot/astronauts steal a space shuttle by firing it up and launching it off the back of the Boeing 747 transporter. This cannot happen: the 747 can't lift the shuttle with a full fuel load – it only just lifts it empty. It is not a fictional, futuristic spacecraft. It's a bog standard shuttle, stolen from NASA, on the back of the modified 747 used by them to transport the orbiter from its landing site to Cape Canaveral. (Why would they carry a fully fuelled shuttle anyway?)
Factual error: When a real shuttle is launched (or any other large rocket), the exhaust must be deflected sideways and guided through massive tunnels or trenches so that it does not bounce back into the base of the vehicle and destroy it. The Moonrakers lift off from inside an enclosed structure with no means of guiding the massive exhaust plume safely away. The tiny tunnel through which Bond and Holly escape would have been utterly useless to vent the exhaust of a real shuttle. In common with other movies, the noise and violence of a real launch simply cannot be portrayed accurately.
Continuity mistake: When James Bond is fighting with the pilot on the aeroplane, the wall beside the door is beige when viewed from inside and brown when viewed from outside.
Continuity mistake: In the cable car, Dr. Goodhead's shoes change from high heels to flat soles, and they also change color.
Continuity mistake: When the girl in the alleyway sees Jaws, she takes a closed flick knife out of her bag. When the angle changes to behind her, the blade's now extended.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the space station explodes, the wire holding up the model is visible when the explosion backlights it.
Visible crew/equipment: In Venice, when the two scientists are dying, there's a shot in front of Bond, with one of them standing at the window. There's a reflection of the two scientists and something else moving behind—a crew member or some kind of equipment.
Factual error: When Jaws jumps from one cable car to the other, there is no way he could have leapt the distance he does, considering the way he hops off the first cable car.
Continuity mistake: When Bond is fighting Jaws while falling from the plane, Bond's chute changes color from a red and yellow pack to a beige and red pack and then back again. (00:05:18)
Suggested correction: Sorry, the parachute is red and yellow at all times. Just watched the scene 5 times in a row. On the other hand: well spotted for the beige turning brown wall of the plane.
Continuity mistake: In the beginnning when Jaws pushes Bond out of the airplane he has a white shirt on. In all the close ups of Jaws he has a tan shirt on. When you see him from far away he has a white shirt on again.
Continuity mistake: At 1:46:22 roughly, we see one of the Space Marines. He's standing almost full on to the camera with a slight turn to screen right. He gets blasted and he dies. But at 1:46:29 he's back and in the same position.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bond is in the helicopter being flown from the airport to Drax's estate, both landscape and weather change drastically from one moment to another as he approaches the castle. When the castle is first seen from the air in a long shot, it is surrounded by mountains and the sky is entirely clear. In the shots closer to the castle and from ground level, the mountains have disappeared and there are clouds in the sky. The cloud cover changes as well just after landing.
Factual error: As Bond switches his gondola to hovercraft mode in Venice, a large skirt unfolds from the bottom of the craft. There could never be enough room below the deck of a gondola to store the folded skirt plus whatever fans and machinery the air cushion drive would require. (00:38:40)
Continuity mistake: The space shuttles in this film, as with the ones in real life, can be entered or exited using the side front airlock. But one of the shuttles is shown docking with the docking port attaching to the right of the airlock. This would make it impossible to use the airlock. Later close-up shots of the docked shuttles, however, show the docking port properly over the airlock.
Continuity mistake: In the final scene, in the live transmission from the shuttle, there is a full shot of Bond and Holly who are covered by a sheet, and they are at least 4 meters from the camera. In the next shot Bond's face is right in the camera, and he can reach over and turn it off.
Continuity mistake: Bond and Holly are in a room when the ceiling opens up to show them beneath the rockets of Moonraker 5. The next shot shows one of the rockets to be below the level of the ceiling. (01:24:25)
Revealing mistake: During the laser battle inside the space station, one of the villains on one of the upper circular tiers makes a move as though to signify he was hit with a laser a second or two before the laser actually hits him.
