One of the things that I thought was strange is actually based on real science, appearently. I was listening to NPR's "Science Friday" this afternoon and they had someone on talkning about the mission to Mercury. I guess they have a sun shield (a big umbrella keeping the craft in the shade) on that mission...but it begs the question: why not build the ship out of the material that the shield is made from?
And, the other point I thought was weird, is the computer in the movie told them they were 13 hours away from the point they needed to be to release the payload...and then the **** hit the fan. It wasn't 13 hours of ****, yet they released the payload and were successfull anyway.