History Main / AccidentalAstronaut

* In ''Film/FlashGordon'', Flash and Dale are press-ganged at gunpoint by the MadScientist Dr. Zarkov into joining him on a space flight. Despite this rocky start, Zarkov ends up their friend and is ultimately a good guy.

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* ''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 [[ThrownOutOfTheAirlock 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]].

* [[https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts119/launchbat.html This bat]] attempted an OutsideRide on one of the shuttle's external fuel tanks. Sadly, he did not survive.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'': Subverted in "[[Recap/TheRaccoonsS5E9TheWrongStuff The Wrong Stuff!]]." When Bentley takes Broo to the site where Cyril Sneer plans to launch his own TV satellite into space, Broo accidentally gets himself trapped inside the satellite after Bentley leaves him alone. When Bert, Bentley, and Cedric find out about this, they try to get him out of there before launch, which they fortunately succeed at.

* ''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.

* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMax'': The backstory of the original pilot movie explains that Max was intially an accidental astronaut after wandering away from his parents at Cape Canavral. This led to him being later able to make his own spacecraft ... somehow.

* ''The Gulf Between'' by Tom Godwin. A spy steals a prototype spacecraft but gives the wrong order to the robot pilot and is [[LudicrousSpeed immediately pressed into the pilot's couch by the acceleration]], unable to move or speak to issue the command to slow down while the robot obediently carries out his last order, including [[AndIMustScream helping the pilot stay alive with drugs and artificial implants]].

* ''[[Literature/PriscillaHutchins Chindi]]'' by Creator/JackMcDevitt has an alien spacecraft that--instead of jumping through hyperspace like human spaceships--uses constant acceleration to up to a quarter light speed to take TheSlowPath across interstellar distances. Unfortunately, a member of the expedition is still on the spacecraft when it takes off earlier than they anticipated. While his colleagues can jump through hyperspace to get ahead of him, the problem is matching the spacecraft's velocity once they come out of hyperspace.

* ''Film/SpaceCamp'': A group of children is attending the titular space camp to learn about the NASA space program and experience astronaut training. When a malfunctioning robot hears one of them wish to go into space, it hacks the NASA computers and launches them into orbit while they're aboard a space shuttle.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'': Gumby decides to go onto an airfield one day and play with the craft parked there, because reasons. He takes a landing craft and flies to the moon, ending up stranded due to a meteor storm destroying the craft.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Stowing away on the TARDIS, a spacecraft disguised as a police box, is one of the traditional ways that one becomes the Doctor's companion.

* Played with, in that it seems to be the this trope but the ship appears to have been a trap, with no definite prey in mind, in ''Film/GameraVersusGuiron'', after the unoccupied ship lands on Earth and two boys sneak aboard, whereupon the ship takes off. Lucky for the two children, Gamera has spotted this and tails the ship.

* ''WesternAnimation/Gumby'': Gumby decides to go onto an airfield one day and play with the craft parked there, because reasons. He takes a landing craft and flies to the moon, ending up stranded due to a meteor storm destroying the craft.

* ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'': After sleeping in a pipe in ''Mouse Into Space'', a man hooks it up to a rocket fuel tank, making Tom stuck in the rocket's fuel compartment. A man also presses the button that launches the rocket, causing the cat to swim away from the fire and Jerry's rocket to lift off.

* ''Franchise/Tom and Jerry'': After sleeping in a pipe in ''Mouse Into Space'', a man hooks it up to a rocket fuel tank, making Tom stuck in the rocket's fuel compartment. A man also presses the button that launches the rocket, causing the cat to swim away from the fire and Jerry's rocket to lift off.

* ''Franchise/{{TomAndJerry}}'': After sleeping in a pipe in ''Mouse Into Space'', a man hooks it up to a rocket fuel tank, making Tom stuck in the rocket's fuel compartment. A man also presses the button that launches the rocket, causing the cat to swim away from the fire and Jerry's rocket to lift off.

* ''Franchise/{{TomAndJerry}}'': After sleeping in a pipe in ''Mouse Into Space'', a man hooks it up to a rocket fuel tank, making Tom stuck in the rocket's fuel compartment. A man also presses the button that launches the rocket, causing the cat to swim away from the fire and Jerry's rocket to lift off.

* ''Risk'': [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the engineer sent on board an experimental spacecraft that failed to take off: even if he has the situation under control, he deliberately smashes the multi-million-dollar flight computer in order to prevent becoming this trope.

Either way, this results in the character being forced into a dilemma they can't easily escape from. It may involve a rescue mission of sorts where a rescue team frantically scrambles to find or pursue the spacecraft to save the accidental space wanderer, but if no such mission is featured, then the character is left to their own devices as they wander through space on a misadventure of the ages, with all the wacky space hijinx that ensues.

Despite what fiction would have you to believe, this type of scenario is impossible in RealLife. There are so many safety and security measures in place for spacecraft launches that the chance of someone stumbling into one and accidentally pressing something to launch themselves into space is zero. Launches are not as simple as pressing a BigRedButton labelled "LAUNCH". It requires advanced preparation days or weeks beforehand, and final approval to launch goes to MissionControl. The chance of someone stowing away on a spacecraft is also impossible because of how dangerous it really is, given that it could result in [[SpaceIsolationHorror death of the occupant either by suffocation to the vacuum of space, starvation due to lack of life support, radiation exposure, or other manners of space-related issues]]. Needless to say, this trope pretty much runs on RuleOfCool and WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Accidental launches and accidental stowaways are more feasible in ScienceFiction due to the lack of the aforementioned reality checks, but even then, these are still in the realm of fiction.

* ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'': In "One Way to the Moon", Tony and Doug land inside a rocket just before it blasts off.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': This happens to [[spoiler:Donald Duck]] at the end of "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S2E11TheGoldenSpear The Golden Spear!]]", after seeing a spaceship crash to earth. He assumes that [[spoiler:his long-lost sister, Della]] is inside the spaceship and runs to the site of the crash, only for him to get trapped inside the spaceship and taken to the moon.
* ''WesternAnimation/EngieBenjy'': Subverted in "Jollop Alone". Jollop the dog accidentally ends up inside [[ADogNamedDog Spaceship the sentient spaceship]] and ends up flying upwards, but thankfully manages to land before reaching space.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS11E9SpaceCadet Space Cadet]]", Chris goes to space camp and as he has the whole Griffin family on a tour of the Space Shuttle, Stewie excitedly hits the BigRedButton, launching them into orbit.
* ''Series/FireballXL5'': In the episode ''Drama at Space City'', Commander Zero's son Jonathan is looking after Zoonie the Lazoon for his owner. They go poking around XL5 and while in the cockpit, Zoonie repeats what he has heard there before -- the command "Full Power". Robert the Robot, who is in the co-pilot seat as usual, takes this as an order and the ship launches.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': In "Bravo 13", Johnny mistakes NASA for a theme park and a rocket for a ride which results in him going into space.

* ''WesternAnimation/MrMagoo'': In "Destination Magoo", Magoo wanders into an experimental rocket and accidentally launches it with himself inside. It crashes next to Coney Island's Luna Park, which Magoo mistakes for the actual moon.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'': In "[[Recap/ThePatrickStarShowS1E9ToDadAndBackSurvivoring To Dad and Back]]", Patrick goes inside the body of his dad, Cecil. Cecil ends up at an astronaut testing site, but after spinning in the centrifuge, needs to vomit. Trying to find the bathroom, he ends up running onto a space shuttle, which launches while he's using the toilet in it. After vomiting, Cecil accidentally flushes himself down, ejecting both his waste and himself. He crash lands next to his house on Earth.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'': In the short "Rocket to Mars", Popeye and Olive Oyl get inside a rocket ship at a museum, and cause it to blast off to Mars where they then must thwart a Martian invasion of Earth.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'': Subverted in "[[Recap/TheRaccoonsS5E9TheWrongStuff The Wrong Stuff!]]". When Bentley takes Broo to the site where Cyril Sneer plans to launch his own TV satellite into space, Broo accidentally gets himself trapped inside the satellite after Bentley leaves him alone. When Bert, Bentley, and Cedric find out about this, they try to get him out of there before launch, which they fortunately succeed at.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E8SandysRocketSqueakyBoots "Sandy's Rocket"]], [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick accidentally launch themselves into space by messing with the controls of the titular spaceship. The rocket crash-lands back in Bikini Bottom, which [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick [[NotWhereTheyThought mistake for the surface of the Moon]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': In "Astro-Taz", Taz finds himself onboard a combat spaceship intended to handle an incoming meteorite shower. After accidentally launching it, he believes himself to be in a video game, to which the ground crew just says "Sure, let's go with it," and makes him destroy the meteoroids anyway.

* ''Literature/Risk'': [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the engineer sent on board an experimental spacecraft that failed to take off: even if he has the situation under control, he deliberately smashes the multi-million-dollar flight computer in order to prevent becoming this trope.