Ad Astra premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 20, 2019, by 20th Century Fox.

In the early 22nd century, mysterious cosmic ray-bursts emanating from Neptune cause power-surges which threaten to destroy all life in the Solar System.

Roy's father, Clifford McBride, was the project's leader, a man considered a hero in Spacecom history, contact was lost sixteen years into its mission.

Roy agrees to travel to Mars to use the last active long range communications station unaffected by the bursts in an effort to contact Clifford aboard the "Lima."

At the Moon Spacecom base, Roy is told in secret by colonel Pruitt that should he fail to make contact with the "Lima Project", the station will have to be destroyed.

After securing himself in the underground SpaceCom complex, Roy begins recording officially pre-written voice messages and transmitting them to the Lima Project in hopes that Clifford will respond.

She shows him classified footage revealing that Clifford's team mutinied and attempted to return to Earth, causing him to shut off their life-support systems; her parents were among those killed and that the 'hero' story was created to hide the truth.

Roy copies data gathered about numerous planets by the Lima Project team and persuades Clifford to accompany him back to Earth.

The data retrieved from the Lima Project base found no other life in the knowable universe; yet it contains a treasure trove of information on many 'magnificent' worlds, Roy is entranced by their beauty and wonder, something that was lost on his father.

"[18] The visual effects were by Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Mr. X, Weta Digital, Brainstorm Digital, and Capital T, and supervised by Allen Maris, Christopher Downs, Guillaume Rocheron, Ryan Tudhope, Aidan Fraser, Olaf Wendt, Anders Langlands, Eran Dinur, Jamie Hallett, and Territory Studio.

[3] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Downton Abbey and Rambo: Last Blood, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,450 theaters in its opening weekend.

[29] The opening was compared to First Man (2018), another drama involving outer space which received high praise from critics but a lukewarm audience reception, resulting in a muted box office turnout despite its cast and budget.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Ad Astra takes a visually thrilling journey through the vast reaches of space while charting an ambitious course for the heart of the bond between parent and child.

"[34] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film an "A" and said, "Ad Astra is one of the most ruminative, withdrawn, and curiously optimistic space epics this side of Solaris.

"[36] Variety critic Owen Gleiberman praised Pitt's performance, explaining, "Gray proves beyond measure that he's got the chops to make a movie like this.

[39] Adam Graham writing for The Detroit News found problems with the film, giving it a "C" rating: "This is slow, obtuse film-making with little emotional connection.