The Day the Sky Exploded

The history-making launch of the first man into space takes an unexpected turn when Astronaut McLaren (Paul Hubschmid) is forced to eject from his ship, leaving the rocket on an uncontrolled journey into the cosmos. Soon there are mysterious occurrences on Earth, including a disturbing bright sphere surrounded by a halo in the sky. The renegade rocket has generated a cataclysmic chain reaction. A vast field of meteorites is hurtling on a collision course with Earth, causing tidal waves and intense heat igniting a global inferno. In a desperate attempt to stop the killer-meteor bombardment, the governments of the world launch their defensive atomic missiles to combat the plummeting asteroids, culminating in catastrophic events that test the fate of humanity.

An Italian/French production in which a rocket collides with the sun and sends a shower of deadly asteroids over Earth - the solution prefigures the ending of "Meteor" by 21 years.