The Astronaut is a 1972 science fiction film

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

  starring Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...

 and directed by Robert Michael Lewis. This made for television film follows a man who has been hired to impersonate an astronaut who died during the first manned mission to Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

. Following the failure of the mission NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 (who fear their project will be cancelled) fool the public by having an actor given extensive surgery and faking the landing on Mars. Only his wife begins to suspect that the man claiming to be her husband may not be who he claims to be.

Cast

Actor	Role
Jackie Cooper Jackie Cooper Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...	Kurt Anderson
Monte Markham Monte Markham Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...	Eddie Reese
	Col. Brice Randolph
Richard Anderson Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man...	Dr. Wylie
Robert Lansing Robert Lansing (actor) Robert Lansing was an American stage, film and television actor.Born in San Diego, California as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would...	John Phillips
Susan Clark Susan Clark Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...	Gail Randolph
John Lupton John Lupton John Rollin Lupton was an American film and television actor.Upon graduation from New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Lupton secured immediate stage work. Then he was signed as a contract player at MGM in Hollywood...	Don Masters
Walter Brooke Walter Brooke Walter Brooke was an American actor. Brooke is best known for playing Mr. McGuire in The Graduate, where he said his famous line, "Plastics"....	Tom Everett
James Sikking James Sikking James Barrie Sikking is an American actor known for his role as Lt. Howard Hunter on the 1980s NBC TV series Hill Street Blues. He also starred on the ABC TV series Doogie Howser, M.D. as Dr. David Howser and on the short-lived 1997 CBS drama series Brooklyn South as Captain Stan Jonas...	Astronaut Higgins
Paul Kent	Carl Samuels
Loretta Leversee	Toni Scott
Wally Schirra Wally Schirra Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. was an American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs...