While they are in space, weightlessness only seems to affect their bodies, and Tish's jewelry, but not their hair which remains hanging as if gravity is still in effect.
After Jinx says "Bye Max" after liftoff, one of the control room staff states they're instituting the roll manoeuvre, however Jinx's view of the shuttle before this already showed the shuttle in the post-roll position.
During the re-entry sequence when the space shuttle enters a flat spin the exterior shots of the shuttle correctly show a combination of out-of-control roll and yaw. The internal cockpit shots show the earth rotating in the background through the side-windows which could only occur if the shuttle were pitching end over end.
The locations of Andy, Max and the connection cable to Andy's EMU suit change repeatedly while Max is attempting to draw Andy back into the cargo bay. In one shot, Max is banging his fist against the cargo bay doors, in a proceeding shot, he's about 10 feet away. In the following shot of Max, he is against the doors again.
When Kevin and Katherine go to the beach after curfew, there's a close up of the shuttle on the launch pad as seen from the beach. In all the subsequent shots from far away there is no shuttle on the launch pad.
The shuttle program had several abort options prior to achieving orbit. There was a return to launch site abort, meaning after dropping the solid rocket boosters they would turn about and go right back. There was also a transatlantic abort (land in a friendly foreign country in Europe) or abort once around (one orbit and back in). In all cases, the shuttle could've returned pretty quickly. Of course, then there would've been no movie. However, it should be noted that NASA never actually tested any of these space shuttle launch abort functions which was noted in the Challenger accident report. So there's no way to know if they would have actually worked.
During liftoff, Andie tells Kevin "You've gotta drop the solid
boosters - they're on your side." She tells him that the controls are on panel C3, which is correct, but panel C3 is directly between the pilot and commander seats, and the SRB separation controls can be easily reached by either crew member. Also, during launch, according to NASA and other shuttle astronauts, the PLT and CDR don't touch anything during launch. The separation of the SRB's is done by onboard computer. The only indication of SRB performance is a light that tells the crew the SRB's are about to separate. No buttons are pushed.
The runways at White Sands are dry lake beds. Atlantis is shown landing on a paved runway.
After Kevin aborted the automatic re-entry to rescue Andie, they stated that there was not enough oxygen even with the refuel to make the next landing window at Edwards. In reality, the first landing available to an orbiting shuttle would have been back at Kennedy an orbit before an Edwards landing was possible, and even if they missed the first one, there would have been at least one more opportunity on the next orbit for any of the four available landing sites (Kennedy, White Sands, Edwards, and Gregg County Airport in Longview, Texas [is deemed an emergency landing location for the shuttle]), about 90 minutes later, well within the 12 hours' air they had left.
Almost immediately after reaching orbit, the Space Shuttle has to open its cargo bay doors in order to vent heat from the craft through radiators built on the inside of the doors. These doors aren't closed again until just before re-entry in order to prevent over-heating. For much of their time in orbit in this movie, the bay doors remain closed. In addition, the doors on Atlantis don't even have the radiators.
When Jinx is reviewing the list of astronauts, the name Ronald McNair is clearly visible and listed as an active astronaut. McNair was one of the astronauts killed in the Challenger accident but the movie was finishing filming months before.
The only message in Morse code that Atlantis sends prior to contact with Mission Control is "SOS". But when Jinx notices that Atlantis is sending Morse code, he starts speaking the letters out loud, which spell, "Come in Control". Then Mission Control starts translating the code which has now changed to "Request Alternate Landing". Not only is the message no longer "SOS", but there is no way that much information could be conveyed that quickly with Morse code sent at the speed Atlantis is seen using.
When the shuttle is performing the 180 roll, there are two revealing mistakes. First, the view of earth outside the shuttle window disappears and reappears. Second, the axis of the roll is different between shots. In the exterior shots, the axis of the roll is along the length of the shuttle, but in the interior shots, the shuttle is rolling along it's width.
During the girl's dorm scene in the beginning where Kathryn and Tish have their first conversation, one of the other campers is playing the Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" cassette on her stereo in the dorm. However, the continuity of the album is not in sequence as it jumps directly from "So Far Away" (track 1) to "Walk of Life" (track 3), completely skipping Money for Nothing which was track 2.
While Max is pulling Andie back into the shuttle bay, the suspension wires are visible connecting to Andie's pack in the moment they grab each others hands.
SpaceCamp was both set and filmed at the actual SpaceCamp in Huntsville, AL. At one point Kevin and Kathryn drive over to see the shuttle on the launchpad, but that's a ten hour drive from Huntsville, AL. There was a SpaceCamp at Kennedy Space Center, but it did not open until 1988.
When at Andy is trying to get more oxygen tanks from the space center, she is unable to reach the tank because her helmet is too big and it keeps hitting the metal bars. But when Max volunteers to go, he is put into an adult size astronaut suit because that is all that is there. If Andy had problems reaching it due to her helmet, then Max wouldn't have been able to reach it either.
The Shuttle had 12 Hours of Oxygen left Andie said it would take 25 minutes to get to Daedalus, when they arrived They should still have 11 hours and 35 minutes of air, but yet they only had less than 20 minutes.
It takes about a day to leave the shuttle for a space walk, otherwise an astronaut would suffer the bends like a diver. Although Andie could have immediately entered the shuttle after failing to retrieve the oxygen, it would have taken a second day for Max to leave the airlock for an unscheduled walk. With only 12 hours of oxygen, there's no way a space walk would have saved them. There wouldn't have been enough time for the first space walk to be started, much less two.
The Shuttle had 12 Hours of Oxygen left Andie said it would take 25 minutes to get to data list, when they arrived They should still have 11 hours and 35 minutes of air, but yet they only had less than 20 minutes.
When the NASA computers tell Jinx that there is no "Max" in the space program, the display lists real-life astronauts and their status at the time of filming. Mark N. Brown's status is misspelled as "canidate". Seconds later, Virgil "Gus" Grissom's first name is misspelled "Vergil".