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This movie is from the late 80s, early 90s. I think it was on TV a number of times during the Disney broadcasts on Sunday night.

The premise is that earth is going through an environmental collapse. Acid rain is one of the problems mentioned specifically. So, they've decided to send a ship to a new planet that they've discovered that might have life on it. But it is going to take 50+ years to get there, so they can't send regular astronauts. Instead they pick a bunch of smart kids and one "senior" captain (who is still young - say mid twenties?).

I recall one scene where they are recruiting a kid and it is raining while they eat lunch outside somewhere. The food he is eating is very green and stains his teeth. Lots of people are waiting special rain coats because of the rain. This is one of the few scenes that takes place on earth.

On the ship they have an ion drive which lets them travel fast, but not FTL.

Anyway, there is a coup on board that they have to deal with, and I remember one scene where this girl makes a fake metallic feather as a memorial for a friend who may have died.

The movie ends with them resolving the problems on the ship, but only a few weeks/months has elapsed, so there is still a long way to go to get to the planet.

Anyone have any thoughts? Sorry for so few details.

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Earth Star Voyager:

Earth Star Voyager is the name of a science fiction television movie shown on the Wonderful World of Disney in 1988

Here's the opening scene

Review which mentions the acid rain

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  • This is probably the right guess, but it only aired once. – JohnP May 20 '14 at 14:11
  • That's the one!! But I definitely remember seeing it more than once @JohnP. – Trenin May 20 '14 at 15:59
  • @Trenin - I own Earth Star Voyager on DVD and from your description that's it for sure, you might remember seeing it more then once because it was a mini-series. It was on the Wonderful World of Disney (for NBC I believe) originally but it was repeated on the Disney CH at some point. – 22nd Century Fza May 21 '14 at 2:57
  • It did air more than once. The first time it came on, we didn't record it until partway through. It came on again a couple years later and we VCRed the whole thing. – pleurocoelus Feb 11 '16 at 16:43
  • I remember that one - it seemed to me like a miniseries that was supposed to set up a longer-running tv series, but the series never happened. Either my perception was wrong or it wasn't deemed worthy of continuing. I really liked it as a kid, though, and my sisters did, too. Anyone know where you can watch it now? – jfren484 Jul 26 '16 at 3:48

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