As the “SpaceCamp” cast and crew filmed inside a 21st Century Fox soundstage in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson occupied the next soundstage over. The King of Pop was working with director Francis Ford Coppola on the George Lucas-written science-fiction short-film “Captain EO.”

In 1986, “SpaceCamp” was that much of a priority for Fox, according to the film’s director, Harry Winer. “It was considered the big summer release alongside ‘Top Gun,’” Winer says. “That’s a big deal for a studio.”

Upon its release, Tom Cruise fighter-pilot drama “Top Gun” became a pop-culture phenomenon and box-office hit, grossing $179,800,601 in the U.S., according to imbd.com. A different fate awaited “SpaceCamp.” The space-shuttle themed adventure-comedy only did $9,697,739, even though the budget was reportedly around $18 million, about $3 million more than the estimated budget for “Top Gun.”

Despite flopping at theaters, "SpaceCamp" helped launch the careers of several actors who'd become well-known, including one now among the most respected of his era. And the film itself eventually found an audience in home video as a VHS cult-classic, sparking passion for aerospace among many young viewers. Thousands upon thousands of those same youths went on to attend Huntsville's real Space Camp, which helped inspire the film.

Dr. Deborah Barnhart has been CEO of Huntsville’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center since 2010. Back when the “SpaceCamp” film was released, she was beginning a stint as director of the real Space Camp. She says prior to the film, Space Camp, which opened in 1982, was a small regional program attracting around 10,000 students per year. After the film’s release, the camp’s attendance doubled. “It was very exciting for us,” Barnhart recalls of that time, “and we were very flattered they were interested that much in the changes in lives we were making at Space Camp.”

Harry Winer grew up in Detroit, in an era when that city's Motown Records was releasing timeless hits by R&B groups like The Supremes. As a teen he became fascinated with America's space program. He even "fantasized about becoming an astronaut." He'd go on to study film at University of Southern California, inspired by films ranging from "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "It's a Wonderful Life."

Winer recalls the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar mission, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, having a "profound impact" on him. "I think what NASA represented was unlimited possibilities for humankind," Winer says. "And moving from the universal to the specific, it also meant any individual had infinite capacity to achieve whatever it is they set their sights on."

Winer got his big break in showbiz when he directed a 1981 episode of ABC’s TV mystery drama “Hart to Hart,” starring Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers. Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, a golden duo who also helmed “Charlie’s Angels,” “Starsky & Hutch” and “Fantasy Island,” were the show’s executive producers.

After wrapping his first "Hart to Hart," Winer was told Wagner "wanted me to come back" and Powers "never wanted to see me again," he was summoned to Goldberg's spacious Fox lot office. "He sat me down and said, 'Listen, you made a beautiful movie and one day we'll make a movie together. But now I want you to come back and direct a 'Hart to Hart,'" Winer recalls with a laugh.

"His point being I'd gone in and thought episodic television was just an opportunity to experiment and explore cinematic skills and that's exactly what I did. But back then television was formulaic. And every television series had a certain look and feel and they were very protective of it and that's what he was encouraging me to do. Leonard became a mentor and we did a lot of work together."

Winer would direct eight more "Hart to Hart" episodes, through 1983. A little later, he got word Goldberg was producing a movie called "SpaceCamp." He wrote the producer a letter reminding him of their conversation about making a movie together someday and suggested maybe this "SpaceCamp" project should be that movie.

"And sure enough, he gave me a shot and it was my first feature," Winer says.

Winer would also be circling back to those astronaut aspirations of his youth.

Filming at Huntsville’s Space Camp took place over a few days in summer 1985. Most scenes were shot during normal daylight hours, although at least one was at night. Winer thinks the cast and crew may have stayed at the Marriott on Space Camp/Rocket Center grounds but isn’t totally sure. Understandable, since that was 34 years ago. There’s also question as to whether that hotel had been built by then.

The “SpaceCamp” cast featured a talented core of mostly young, mostly unknown actors, including Joaquin Phoenix, Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston and Tate Donovan. Kate Capshaw had been the female lead in 1984′s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” a production on which she met future husband, director Steven Spielberg. But Capshaw wasn’t really a star. Thompson had just finished shooting “Back to the Future.” But Winer says that summer 1985 smash hadn’t been released yet while “Space Camp” was filming, although he may have screened a “Back to the Future” scene to see Thompson’s work in it.

"Because nobody had broken and there wasn’t a haughty movie-star there was a great sense of camaraderie," Winer says of the "Space Camp" cast. "Everyone was supportive of one another."

Mia Sara, best known for portraying the titular character's girlfriend Sloane Peterson in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was considered for Thompson's role. Steve Guttenberg, of "Police Academy" and "Cocoon" fame," was in the running for Donovan's role. Interestingly, veteran actor Tom Skerritt graced both "SpaceCamp" and the aforementioned "Top Gun."

In Huntsville, scene locations included Space Camp dorms, Winer says. Life-size replications of a space-shuttle flight-deck and mid-deck were made for the movie. These were later turned into a simulator for the real Space Camp and used in Huntsville from 1986 to 2012 or so.

Press release photos for the 1986 movie "SpaceCamp." (File/20th Century Fox/ABC Motion Pictures Inc.)

Despite misconceptions otherwise, none of the film is actually set in Huntsville. Space Camp sequences are depicted in the film as taking place at Florida's John F. Kennedy Space Center, and scenes for "SpaceCamp" were shot at Kennedy too.

Once things moved to the Fox soundstage, the production dragged due to a certain set-design complication. "We ended up filming one shot a day instead of what would normally be 20 shots or more a day," Winer says. Since the cast was spending most of their time there waiting around, Capshaw came up with the idea of having T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "SpaceCramp." Winer still has his "SpaceCramp" shirt. "I thought that was very funny," he says.

Phoenix would go on to become an in-demand and Academy Award-nominated actor, known for films like "Walk The Line," "Gladiator," "Her" and "The Master." Later this year he'll star in super-villain origin story "The Joker." Back in 1985 though he was just 10-years-old and still known as Leaf Phoenix. Asked if he saw anything back then hinting Phoenix had legit goods, Winer recalls a moment between Joaquin and older brother, actor River Phoenix, then just 14 and soon to star in "Stand By Me," also released summer '86.

That day at the Fox soundstage, Joaquin was supposed to film a scene while suspended about 30 feet from the ground via a harness, to simulate the weightlessness of space.

"He was absolutely terrified, so I was trying to give him some sense of comfort," Winer says. "In walks his brother. I remember River kneeling to Joaquin's eye level and having a little chat. The next thing that happened was Joaquin rose up on the wire and did the scene.

"When you're sort of introduced through love to a particular field or craft, you are much more open to the experience of it fully, than if a stranger is trying to walk you through it from the ground up. So, I'm not surprised at all given River's influence and Joaquin's introduction to that world that he's fared as well as he has. I think he's the best actor of his generation, quite candidly, and the most interesting one."

"SpaceCamp" boasted a score by the biggest name in the game, composer John Williams, whose credits by this time included "Jaws," "Superman" and "E.T." … as well as some obscure space-opera trilogy called "Star Wars." It was Goldberg who got Williams interested in "SpaceCamp." Williams watched a rough cut and agreed to meet with Winer about score possibilities. "There's a reason why anyone who's a legend is a legend," Winer says. "He always finds a way to create feeling of the adventure of a lifetime in the music he generates, and John Williams is the most gratifying and rewarding creative collaboration I've had in my entire career. He would analyze a story and consider when there was a need for silence. He understood your creative intensions and found a way in a very poetic medium of music to interpret and enhance your vision. It was literally remarkable."

Fans of Williams’ iconic “Star Wars” work will enjoy the celestial, evocative “SpaceCamp” score, which you can find on YouTube. The “SpaceCamp” soundtrack also featured recent hits by two huge rock acts, Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life” and “So Far Away” and Eric Clapton’s “Forever Man.”

Unfortunately, the outlook for "SpaceCamp" changed dramatically on Jan. 28, 1986. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded about a minute after launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Winer found out about the Challenger from Capshaw, who called him from New York where she was appearing on a morning talk-show, as he recalls it. Shocked, they mourned the tragedy. Eventually, Capshaw asked Winer if he thought the Challenger disaster would impact "SpaceCamp." The director said it wouldn't "because after such a tragedy, people would need to cling to the hope the film represented," Winer says now.

"And needless to say, I was totally wrong," he continues. "They saw it as a source of jeopardy, of disappointment, of tragedy, rather than hope. No one went to see 'SpaceCamp' the movie, so then I felt like I had failed miserably."

While the Challenger effect was no doubt crippling, “SpaceCamp” also suffered some bad reviews. In his one-and-a-half-star review, famous Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert panned the dialogue as “dumb" and the direction and editing as “slow-footed.” Ebert concluded, “Would anyone like this movie? Juvenile space nuts, maybe. But they’d be too sophisticated.”

All that said, Winer has fond memories of the "SpaceCamp" premiere in Los Angeles. The cast and crew and their significant others attended. Spielberg had previously asked to watch the film at home that night, so a 35mm print was sent to the "E.T." auteur's residence. Winer recalls getting to meet Barbara Streisand after the premiere while at L.A. restaurant The Grill.

Although “SpaceCamp” bombed, life worked out better than OK for Harry Winer. He married one of “Charlie’s Angels,” model-turned-actress Shelley Hack. He directed episodes of beloved TV shows like “Alias,” “Felicity” and “Veronica Mars.” These days, he splits time between a Santa Monica home, directing gigs (including an upcoming Ruby Rose-starring project) and teaching film at New York University.

In 2016, he returned to Huntsville for the first time since filming "SpaceCamp," when, to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary, cast and crew were inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame. Other "SpaceCamp" notables to attend included actor Larry B. Scott, also known for "Revenge of the Nerds," and producer Patrick Bailey. Winer recalls walking in that night and being greeted like he was a huge celebrity. All these adult- and middle-aged fans kept coming up to Winer, saying how they were an engineer, astronaut or some other aerospace-related thing, and watching "SpaceCamp" as a kid was why they chose that path.

"It was a gift to me to have that experience," Winer says, "because outside the context of time I was able to get a sense of fulfillment that comes from knowing something you created had an impact. The thing about filmmaking is you put something out into the ethers and you have no clue in terms of who sees it or how they’re impacted by it."

Promotional poster for the 1986 movie "SpaceCamp," filmed in part at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. (File photo)

Winer says he's now working on a sequel to "SpaceCamp," due to ongoing grassroots interest in the original. The project is in the script stage and involves a mission to Mars. Although he feels the Mars angle adds timeliness, Winer cautions, "It’s a long journey between now and the if and when it gets produced." He says he's also sold a separate Space Camp-set film to TV's Hallmark Channel. "Hopefully, we'll bring these couple of projects back to Huntsville."

There remains one "SpaceCamp" loose end for Winer. The film's characters included Jinx, a robot sidekick for Phoenix's character, Max. For production, three or four Jinxes were built, each of which had a different function, controlled offscreen via remote control - move forward and backward, raise arms, expand and light up. In 1985 technology just wasn't as small as it is today to fit all these functions into one Jinx. There was also a probability of, post-"Star Wars," any space-movie robot-sidekick coming off like an R2-D2 rip-off. This issue was further complicated on "SpaceCamp," as Phoenix's character was depicted as being a big "Star Wars" fan.

But now all these years later, "The great mystery is whatever happened to Jinx," Winer says, "because I tried to find where that little machine, is because so many people have been asking after it, and we were not able to track it down."

Decades later, the real Space Camp's alumni is nearing a million worldwide. Those numbers include Chelsea Clinton, CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin and actor Kal Penn. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Bruce Springsteen’s kids have attended Space Camp. As has Tom's Hanks' son, Truman. Movie star Charlize Theron attended Family Space Camp.

More notably, seven future astronauts attended Space Camp as youths, including five-time graduate Christina Koch, currently on a mission aboard the International Space Station.

“We’re all geeks here, but everybody loves ‘SpaceCamp’ the movie, even today’s young people,” Barnhart says. “No matter where I am on the planet, people are constantly mentioning it.”

We’e celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 with stories through the month. You can find the full collection of stories, from al.com staff and others, here: Apollo 11 Anniversary.