Nasa Gives Thumbs Up on New Mars Movie

HOUSTON (AP) — The new movie "The Martian" is getting a thumbs-up from real-life NASA engineers. In the film, Matt Damon plays an astronaut accidentally stranded on the Red Planet. Ellen Ochoa is the director of the Johnson Space Center and a former astronaut. She says technology depicted in film highlights many of the things NASA is working on, including ways of sustaining human life on Mars. The Galveston County Daily News reports two actors from the movie got a chance to tour the space center and even spoke to astronauts now on aboard the International Space Station. The Martian opens October 2.