The New York Times was critical of Riders to the Stars, calling it lackluster and gimmicky. "Spliced in to give all the idiotic, pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo a precarious footing in fact are newsreel shots ..." Later reviews, however, noted that the filmmakers had created a "near-documentary" by using rocket footage and scientific equipment as a precursor to the coming space age, all within an "unremarkable film".Ashlin, Scott. "Review: Riders to the Stars (1954)." 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting. Retrieved: July 20, 2015.
