Director: Liz W. Garcia
Florida bartender Tiffany "Rex" Simpson fakes her way into NASA's astronaut program in "Space Cadet," a 2024 comedy from director Liz W. Garcia.
What is Space Cadet about?
Rex has spent years dreaming about space while working a bar job that has nothing to do with rockets or physics. When she pads her application just enough to get noticed, she suddenly finds herself accepted into one of the most competitive astronaut training programs in the country. Surrounded by candidates with advanced degrees and years of preparation, Rex has to lean on street smarts, charm, and sheer stubbornness to keep from being found out. Training pushes her physically and mentally in ways she never expected, and the pressure only grows as the group is whittled down toward an actual mission slot. Along the way she forms unlikely friendships and at least one complicated romance, both of which threaten to expose the shortcuts she took to get there. The closer she gets to her childhood dream, the harder it becomes to keep her cover story straight, forcing Rex to decide whether she's actually capable of the thing she lied to attempt.
Cast & crew
Emma Roberts stars as Rex, leading a cast that includes Tom Hopper as a fellow trainee, Poppy Liu, and Gabrielle Union. Kuhoo Verma, Desi Lydic, Sebastián Yatra, and Sam Robards round out the training program's mix of instructors and competitors.
Context & significance
Written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, "Space Cadet" belongs to a long tradition of fish-out-of-water comedies where an unlikely underdog talks their way into an elite institution. The film's 2024 release places it alongside a broader run of space-themed comedies that use NASA's rigor as a backdrop for a more personal story about self-doubt and reinvention. Its United States production and setting keep the astronaut-training world grounded in a recognizable, contemporary version of the agency.
Where & how to watch
"Space Cadet" streams on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles available alongside the original English version. This page is free to read for anyone, and watching the film only requires logging into a K-Time account. K-Time's Farsi interface is built for the Iranian diaspora, making comedies like this one easy to find, browse, and enjoy in a familiar language.