That's one small step on the red carpet. . . .

As the sun sets in the west, Clint Eastwood strides into town and squints down the barrel to business end of a shotgun microphone. There's an explosion of flashbulbs. Go ahead paparazzi, make his day.

The red carpet premiere of Eastwood's latest film Space Cowboys pulled out all the stops. Limos dispatched star after star to the gaggling screams of fans that crowded the streets of Westwood.

In addition to the film's cast, many others celebs strutted their stuff down the red carpet: James Woods, Mac Davis, comedian Mort Sahl, Suzanne Pleshette, Frances Fisher with her daughter Francesca Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, David (7th Heaven) Gallagher, Joel Grey, Alan Thicke, Camryn Manheim, Michael Bolton, Eva Marie Saint plus the usual bevy of starlets, old Hollywood character actors, former movie moguls, young mogul wannabes who wore black with sunglasses and had cell phones surgically attached to their faces.

Oh yeah, there were folks from NASA there too.
 

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SPACE.com: What were the challenges of being the producer on this movie?

Eastwood: Well I've been doing it a long time. There are always challenges. Every movie has its own little hurdles to overcome.

SPACE.com: What's tougher, being a space cowboy or a dusty cowboy on the frontier?

Eastwood: It depends. The story is the king. You're just an interpretive person and if this is a period piece from the 1800s it has obstacles that are fun to overcome and that's great. This one has space obstacles so that's a different ballgame.

SPACE.com: What's it like juggling all three jobs, acting, directing and producing?

Eastwood: Well I've been doing it for a lot of years.

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SPACE.com: What did you learn from your little taste of astronaut training?

Jones: All we did was just wear space suits. That was about it. We got to meet some astronauts. That was a wonderful thing. They're very impressive people. Everybody wants to be an astronaut, I suppose, when they're a kid. Everyone looks up to them. But when you stand next to them, you realize you're in the presence of heroic folks. Very smart, very bright.

SPACE.com: You play an Air Force pilot in the film. Are you a pilot in real life?

Jones: I'm not a pilot. Clint is a good pilot. I'd rather be my own dentist than my own pilot. I'm afraid I'd have a wreck pretty quick.

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SPACE.com: What was your favorite part of the movie?

Sutherland: Satisfying Clint by being truthful [to the character].

SPACE.com: Why is space exploration important?

Sutherland: It's just a frontier that needs to be discovered. It's like [Sir Edmund] Hillary said about Mt. Everest, "Because it's there."

SPACE.com: What did you learn working with the folks at NASA?

Sutherland: Those people that are working there in the space program, when you sit and talk with them, they're so dedicated, so earnest, so selfless, so self-sacrificing, so smart, so committed. There's so much really hard work specific to it and in terms of their relationship to us when we we're doing the movie, they're incredibly generous.

SPACE.com: What would you do if you were in charge of NASA?

Sutherland: Their problem is that they are under-funded. You can't have metric/imperial errors like they had with the Mars Polar Lander. It's all a matter of under-funding and lack of interest from Congress. It is a long-term deal and it is essential that it be conducted.

SPACE.com: What did you learn from your little taste of astronaut training?

Sutherland: The best of it was the Canada arm. I had the opportunity to sit there and move it. It was actually a simulator but I thought it was real. To actually pick things up with it, I was thrilled. When the Canada arm was first sent out there into space on the shuttle, because I'm Canadian I was invited down but I couldn't go. So I had this one and I was thrilled.

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SPACE.com: Was it intimidating working for Clint, he is Dirty Harry after all?

Garner: Well I'm Rockford and I'll handle his butt. He didn't intimidate me at all. I've known him too long.

SPACE.com: What's the most fun thing about the movie for you?

James Garner: There's a little bit of everything in this movie for everyone. If you want to be entertained, go see this movie. I don't remember anything funny shooting the movie. I broke my shoulder. Donald broke his leg, but that's not funny.

SPACE.com: Why is space exploration important?

James Garner: Well, look around on this Earth and see how they're ruining it and what they're doing with the environment. It means we're not long for this Earth, so we better have some place else to go.

SPACE.com: What did you learn from your little taste of astronaut training?

James Garner: We didn't do a lot of astronaut training. All I did was work the retractable arm and I got pretty good at that.

SPACE.com. Could working the arm be a second career for you?

James Garner: What happened to the first one?

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SPACE.com: How did you prepare to play the heart and soul of NASA?

Harden: We got to go down to Houston and Florida and we got to work alongside the astronauts down there. They showed us all the flight testing that they did. Just making sure we had the right tone for it. I have so much more respect for these guys. I mean, I did anyway, but when you think about the space cowboys -- and I'm in awe of the human potential for achieving things -- accomplishing things while risking their lives is amazing.

SPACE.com: Why is space exploration important?

Harden: There are so many reasons why. So many of the products we get today, plastics, thermal underwear, food. They think that possibly in 20 years, that we'll go to Mars to explore other sources of energy, to explore other planets -- it's hugely important and we need to support NASA with more funding.

SPACE.com: What would you do if you were in charge of NASA?

Harden: I'd keep hiring more women and I'd hire Clint to go into space.

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"Clint is the most humble, quiet family man and that surprised me. He's somebody who, when we're shooting, we're in there by six and we're out there by six for everyone. That means there are two takes, maybe three, and you've got to know how to work like that. And that's how he casts, he cast people who know how to hit it and get out. We're there to say our lines, hit our marks and get out of there. He wants to get out, see his wife and then hit the driving range."

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"You have to be a particular kind of person to deal with an astronaut who is going out that door and may not be coming home that night. Or a test pilot who risks his life everyday in what he does. You have to have a lot of self-confidence to marry somebody who's in that position."

SPACE.com: Why is space exploration important?

Babcock: I have been following the space program since I was a little girl. Part of being human is being curious and wanting to explore and that's what we've got left is out there. It's very important.

SPACE.com: What would you do if you were in charge of NASA?

Babcock: I'd certainly have more women involved with the space program. They're starting to do that and it is much better than it was, but you don't have any old astronauts up there who are women.

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Dr. Lewis Peach, former director of advanced projects at NASA

SPACE.com: What did you do on the film?

Peach: I was asked to review the script for its technical accuracy and provide comments and help coordinate some of the things that went on in the film. I haven't seen it yet but from what I've seen in the clips it looks outstanding, really high-fidelity. When you look at the mission control center scene, you can't tell the difference between that one [the set] and the actual one we have at Johnson Space Center. They're identical down to the coffee cups.

SPACE.com: What do you think this movie will do for NASA?

Peach: I think it will do a lot of good things for NASA. It's about heroes in space doing things to save our planet and things of that nature. I think it is going to be an awesome message for NASA.

SPACE.com: Why is space exploration important?

Peach: It is important to our future. In my view it is almost Darwinian. It's about choice and selection. We have an opportunity to go beyond this planet and explore the vast limits of space. I think it is important to us. We have a very finite and precious Earth with limited resources. We're growing as a species. We have an opportunity now because a technology is emerging and we have the knowledge that we can make these choices to move out and become a multi-planet species.

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Dr. Kathryn Clark, chief scientist of the International Space Station program

SPACE.com: What did you do on the film?

Clark: Mostly I served as the person at the other end of the phone when Clint Eastwood wanted to know something. He would ask, "What does the inside of the space shuttle really look like? What does an egress from the shuttle really look like, what does mission control really look like?"

SPACE.com: What's it like being on Clint Eastwood's speed dial?

Clark: (Laughs) I don't think I'm really on his speed dial! I really enjoyed working with him. He's got an insatiable desire for knowledge about what NASA does and he chose to use whatever he felt like, but he was always very gracious to me. He was always very thankful that I took the time to help him. Like I don't have time for Clint Eastwood.