In a 1999 blog post about working with the movie crew, Hickam said that the name of the movie was changed from “Rocket Boys” to “October Sky” to make the movie more appealing to women.

The launch of a SpaceX rocket may be visible across the Southeast ... So you don’t need these dark-sky spots, like you would for, you know, aurora or some other phenomenon.” ...

However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends ...