October Sky (1999). Based on a true story, a high school student's fascination about rockets grows after the first Soviet Union satellite was launched into space. His father runs the local coal mine in a small coal mining town in West Virginia, who expects him to one day work his way into the same position as he is but his son does not care for mining coal and instead strives to study and learn rocket science and take up practice launching smaller ones with his friends. Very few in town believe these high school kids will get anywhere or be successful.... until those kids prove them all wrong.