October Sky

October Sky is a 1999 American biographical drama film directed by Joe Johnston from a screenplay by Lewis Colick. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Chris Owen, and Laura Dern. Based on the book Rocket Boys (later published as October Sky), it tells the story of Homer H. Hickam Jr., a coal miner's son from Coalwood, West Virginia, who takes up amateur rocketry with his friends. Hickam would later become a NASA engineer.