The United States’ first manned space mission to Mars is approaching its scheduled lift-off, but NASA finds itself T-minus one astronaut, after the flight team’s accident-prone rocket scientist is grounded. When astronut Fred Z. Randall (Harland Williams), the ingenious-yet-bumbling designer of the ship’s operating system, is chosen to join the mission, the rest of the flight crew is less than thrilled. The closest Fred has gotten to outer space was as a kid, when he pretended to orbit the earth by tumbling around in his mother’s clothes dryer during the fluff cycle.

Cocky Commander “Wild Bill” Overbeck (William Sadler); beautiful-yet-humorless Mission Specialist Julie Ford (Jessica Lundy); and precocious space chimp, Ulysses, all doubt Fred. Only grizzled veteran astronaut Bud Nesbitt (Beau Bridges) holds a shred of confidence in Fred’s abilities. En route to Mars, all heaven breaks loose as Fred finds himself butting heads with Overbeck, falling hopelessly in love with Julie, and finding life on Mars.