The Phantom Planet is a 1961 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film produced by Fred Gebhardt, directed by William Marshall, and starring Dean Fredericks, Coleen Gray, Anthony Dexter, and Francis X. Bushman. It was the first credited appearance of Richard Kiel, although he is not identifiable in the masked monster costume used for the film. The Phantom Planet was released on December 13, 1961 in the U.S. by American International Pictures as a double feature with Assignment Outer Space (1960).

Plot

It is 1980, and the United States Air Force's Space Exploration Wing has bases on the Moon and on the eve of a mission to Mars. When another of its two-member crewed Pegasus spacecraft mysteriously disappears, rumors begin circulating of space monsters and phantom planets. Captain Frank Chapman and his navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen are ordered to investigate.