History Main / AccidentalAstronaut

* ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'': In Timber Hearth's space museum, the section recounting the history of Outer Wilds Ventures mentions that the famous astronaut Feldspar is the first Hearthian to be ''intentionally'' launched into space. [[NoodleIncident Further details are not supplied.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': In ''Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon'', shortly after Calculus's rocket has taken off, the protagonists discover that [[ThoseTwoGuys the Thompsons]] are still inside because they mistook the time of the takeoff (thinking it was set for 1:34 in the afternoon, not 1:34 in the morning) and decided to spend the night in the rocket so they could inspect it before the launch. The two end up being obliged to participate in the exploration of the Moon. It's an UnbuiltTrope (the comic book came out in ''1954'', making it possibly one of the first example of this trope) as [[spoiler: the presence of the Thompsons, plus ''another'' stowaway, ends up [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome stretching]] the ship's [[AlmostOutOfOxygen oxygen supplies]] to the limit, and even with the HeroicSacrifice of TheMole who [[ThrownOutTheAirlock spaces himself]] so the others can live, and the accidental death of the villainous stowaway, the crew almost dies and has to be reanimated with pure oxygen bottles when landing on Earth]].

* ''Literature/SkylarkSeries'': When Duquesne and Perkins seize Dorothy Vaneman and drag her onto their spacecraft to kidnap her, Perkins makes the mistake of stepping too close to her feet to tie them up. He gets a full-force kick that sends him flying into the controls, turning on the power, and they abruptly take off with enough acceleration to render them all unconscious.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]]'', Wes Janson recounts the story of Tomer "Ejector" Darpen, a Y-Wing pilot who has to [[ComingInHot crash-land]] his battle-damaged fighter. After bouncing up and down the length of the landing site (which had been cleared as a makeshift runway) and skidding to a halt, Darpen has long enough to sigh in relief before his ejector seat malfunctions. Because they were based on a low-gravity moon at the time, he achieves escape velocity and has to be rescued by a shuttle.

** The spin-off ''Josie and the Pussycats [[RecycledINSPACE in Outer Space]]'' begins with this trope. While posing for publicity stills in front of a space rocket, Alexandra decides that she doesn't want to be on the fringe, where she can easily be cropped out. Instead, she tries to move to the center, nudging the group behind her. Josie and company lose their balance, and tumble into the crew compartment, pulling Alexandra with them. A stumbling Josie pulls the launch lever by accident, and away they go.

* ''ComicBook/CaptainAtom'': This was Captain Atom's original origin in Charlton Comics. Allen Adams (or Adam, depending on the panel) was a technician performing last-minute adjustments on a Titan rocket when it launched, taking him into orbit where he became a super-being.

[[caption-width-rigth:349:Man, what a [[StealthPun world]] of difference a single simple misunderstanding can make.]]