Revealing mistake: Early in the film Gene Hackman tests a rocket-powered backpack outside the space station. He slowly spins sideways through a complete circle, but instead of each side of his body being lit up in turn as it's pointed towards the sun, the light stays constant throughout the maneuver, showing that the makers just took a photo of Hackman and rotated it.
Continuity mistake: The Russian spaceship approaches the stranded 'Ironman 1' capsule, and as it moves across and fills the screen, it blocks the bright sun directly behind it. The following shot shows it moving away from that position and the sun is now nowhere to be seen.
Revealing mistake: When the Russian spacecraft approaches the Ironman One to help Astronaut Stone, it passes in front of the XRV-1, but its antennas are hidden by the XRV-1. (01:59:20)
Continuity mistake: Rescue astronaut Dougherty wears a red helmet with a large, single white stripe running down the middle from back-to-front. Once inside his space vehicle the stripe disappears, but shows up once again once he exits the ship in space.
Factual error: In nearly every scene depicting someone or something in weightlessness (zero gravity), objects tend to start moving randomly without any initial propulsive force or, when already in motion, to been seen to randomly change direction of movement with no outside force acting upon them. Both of these are impossible in a true zero-G environment.
